Three men in France suspected of kidnapping a 74-year-old man to extort his son’s cryptocurrency assets, tortured him for nearly 16 hours, and released the hostage after realizing they had "caught the wrong person."

BlockBeats News, February 3rd, according to DLNews, French police have arrested three men in their twenties who are suspected of kidnapping and torturing a 74-year-old man in an attempt to extort $3.5 million worth of cryptocurrency from his son. Officials told reporters that the 74-year-old victim was subjected to nearly 16 hours of torture by the gang.

According to French media Actu 17, police said the three individuals kidnapped the unidentified victim from his home in Valence, Var, in southeastern France at dawn on January 25th. The victim was forcibly placed into a car and taken to the back room of a bar in Valence. It is reported that the attackers filmed themselves torturing the elderly man there. Subsequently, the gang sent the torture video to the victim’s son via encrypted messages, demanding an unnamed amount of cryptocurrency as ransom. When they finally realized that the victim’s son was not the “cryptocurrency millionaire” they had mistakenly thought, but rather a web developer with limited crypto assets, they decided to release the victim that same night at 11 p.m., pushing him out of the car onto the roadside.

Incidents of kidnapping and other violent attacks related to cryptocurrency are on the rise worldwide. France’s situation is particularly notable. According to Certik’s data, the country has reported 19 so-called “wrench attacks” (i.e., using violence to threaten and obtain cryptocurrency). Last year, French authorities successfully rescued Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife, who had been kidnapped by criminals attempting to extort ransom.