Crypto tourist nightmare in London: fake Uber driver allegedly drugs American and steals $123K in Bitcoin and XRP

Jacob Irwin Cline landed in London for a short layover. By the time he left, the 30-year-old American tourist says he had lost $123,000 in cryptocurrency and any sense of safety in one of the world’s most visited cities.

The former software engineer from Portland, Oregon, told British outlet MyLondon that a man posing as his Uber driver outside a Soho bar called out his rideshare nickname. Without cross-checking the car model or license plate, Cline got in. That ride, he says, ended in drugging, abduction, and financial ruin.

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The suspect reportedly handed Cline a cigarette laced with scopolamine, a rare but powerful sedative known as “Devil’s Breath,” which allegedly caused memory loss and left him slipping in and out of consciousness.

Crypto theft in the shadows of London
During this blackout, Cline claims he handed over his phone and access credentials. Hours later, he awoke alone and injured after being hit by a car, with no phone and no idea where he was. He stumbled back to his hostel, only to discover that someone had remotely accessed his laptop and emptied his crypto wallets.

Cline says his XRP balance plummeted from $73,000 to less than $1,000. His Bitcoin holdings dropped from $50,000 to under $10,000. Smaller sums from other digital assets vanished too. He identified MEXC and BTSE as destinations for some of the stolen cryptocurrency.

“Without recovery tools or insurance, I estimate my chances of getting any of it back at less than 1%,” he told MyLondon.

Crypto crime on the rise globally
The case is now under investigation by British police and reflects a troubling global trend: the targeting of crypto owners for high-value theft. In recent weeks, Paris saw an attempted abduction of the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, cofounder of crypto exchange Paymium.

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Three masked attackers tried to pull the woman and her child into a van before her partner intervened and was reportedly injured.