1. The Central Bank of Iraq Robbery – $920 million. Baghdad holds the infamous record for the largest bank heist in history. The mastermind was none other than Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
One of the most famous unsolved robberies of all time, dubbed the Antwerp Diamond Heist, saw a criminal gang infiltrate one of the world's most secure vaults. The gang of Italian criminals known as 'the School of Turin' made off with £90million worth of loose diamonds, gold and silver in Belgium Diamond Centre in 2003.
According to the bank surveillance camera, the robbery, executed with military precision, took place in just two minutes and 21 seconds. The gang were tracked down because they failed to remove the front license plate from their getaway vehicle. A bystander noted the number, and passed it to the police.
Early examples
According to The New York Times and the Saturday Evening Post, the first bank robbery in the United States occurred in March 1831 (the 19th according to the Times, the 20th according to the Post). Two men, James Honeyman and William J. Murray, entered the City Bank of New York using forged keys.
In the 1970s, at the age of 16, Bobby Cummines was jailed for armed robbery. During his time in prison he took an Open University degree. He later went on to collect an OBE in recognition of his services to reformed offenders and founded his own charity MIDAS.
Almost as quickly as a bank can be robber, however, the suspect can be arrested. According to FBI statistics, 60 percent of all bank robberies get solved.
Carl Gugasian (born October 12, 1947) is an American bank robber, known as "The Friday Night Bank Robber", who served a 17-year sentence for armed robbery. He is perhaps the most prolific of such criminals in US history, having robbed more than 50 banks over a 30-year period of a total of more than $2 million.
Poly Network is yet another protocol for implementing blockchain interoperability. In summer 2021, it witnessed one of the biggest heists in cryptocurrency history. An unknown hacker, exploiting a vulnerability in Poly Network, stole more than $600 million in various cryptocurrencies.
William Francis Sutton Jr.
(June 30, 1901 – November 2, 1980) was an American bank robber. During his forty-year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times.
High-class, big-score heists are very real and happen more often than one would think. A group of armed men dressed as security guards entered the Brinks Mat warehouse and subdued the real security staff.
The 2006 Securitas depot robbery in Tonbridge, England, was the UK's largest cash heist. It began with a kidnapping on the evening of 21 February 2006 and ended in the early hours of 22 February, when seven criminals stole almost £53 million.
1) The Central Bank of Iraq Robbery
On March 18, 2003, the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad was robbed of approximately $920 million in cash, on the eve of the Iraq War.
Gregory Paul Hess, the man suspected of being the "Polite Robber," was once known as the "Transaction Bandit" when he was convicted of a series of robberies in 2003.
The Antwerp diamond heist, dubbed the "heist of the century", was the largest diamond heist of all time. Since then, the heist was classified to be one of the largest robberies in history. Thieves stole loose diamonds, gold, silver and other types of jewelry valued at more than $100 million.
A Brazilian federal police agent, right, and journalists look through the tunnel dug by the robbers August 8, 2005, in Fortaleza, northeastern Brazil. Thieves dug a 260-foot-long tunnel into a Brazilian Banco Central branch to steal around 70 million dollars, the country's biggest-ever bank heist.
Phishing remains the most common form of crime committed online. In 2021, 323,972 internet users reportedly fell victim to phishing attacks. This means half of the users who suffered a data breach fell for a phishing attack. During the height of the pandemic, phishing incidents rose by 220%.
Murwillumbah Bank Mystery Raid
The thieves managed to steal 8.8 million dollars that were meant for the payment of local workers. It was one of the biggest heists in Australia having stolen the largest amount recorded in the country.
Guy Who Robbed Over 100 Banks Before Turning Himself In Explains How He Did It. Cain Vincent Dyer somehow managed to evade authorities despite robbing over 100 banks across California over a three year period. Between 1999 and 2001, Dyer became an expert in the art of robbing banks.
The robbery was planned to the minutest detail by criminal mastermind George Leonidas Leslie—a society architect and ladies' man whose double life as the nation's most prolific bank robber led him to be dubbed the “King of the Bank Robbers.”
The chemical reaction causing the explosion of the pack and the release of the dye creates high temperatures of about 200 °C (400 °F) which further discourages a criminal from touching the pack or removing it from the bag or getaway vehicle. Dye packs are used to foil robberies in over 75% of banks in the U.S.
Criminals heavily rely on money mules to move the stolen funds around until they can be safely cashed out. The most common method remains withdrawing money from ATMs and spending them in cash businesses controlled by the criminals, or buying and selling expensive items.
In reality, the statisticians report it does pay — just "not very much." Here is their conclusion: "The return on an average bank robbery is, frankly, rubbish. It is not unimaginable wealth.