A pastor in Brazil faked his own kidnapping in an attempt to get his own family to pay him a ransom in cryptocurrency bitcoin. 

Evangelical preacher Alexandre Geraldo dos Anjos, 34, disappeared from his neighbourhood in São José dos Campos last month. A friend of his subsequently received an SMS saying the pastor had been kidnapped and that the family had to pay 3 bitcoin to secure his release.  

But the pastor's plan came undone when his family refused to cough up the cryptocurrency, and after four days missing, the pastor came out of hiding. 

He initially told police that he had escaped from kidnappers' clutches, but quickly came clean and said he had staged the fake kidnapping because he needed money to pay back debts. 

Bitcoin was trading at €7,400 a coin on Sunday. 

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