Authorities have busted a call center in Thailand and arrested 24 Chinese nationals for allegedly running a Bitcoin investment scam.
Chiang Rai Times, an English language news portal, says the scam has been operating since March this year.
Additionally, the portal notes that those arrested were tasked with luring citizens in mainland China to trade Bitcoin using cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global.
According to a statement issued by Thailand ‘s Immigration Police, it appears the individuals had their passported confiscated when they arrived at a rented property in Bangkok, though this remains unclear.
A loosely translated version of the statement reads: “The monthly salary is 5,000 yuan [$710.25]. There is accommodation […] with all meals, phone calls to deceive Chinese people . In order to conduct financial transactions in digital currency and to spin said digital currency on the website, starting from 09:00 hours to 22:00 hours.”
The statement also says police seized 61 notebook computers, 424 mobile phones, routers and “3 internet devices.”
Thailand ’s Immigration Police are reportedly working to identify additional Thai nationals also believed to be involved with the scam .
Opportunistic fraudsters use El Chapo’s son’s arrest in bid to steal Bitcoin
EU central banks team up to explore digital currency use cases
A raft of central banks are banding together to gauge whether they should launch their own digital currencies, Reuters reports .
The group aims to assess use cases of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), analyse design choices such as cross-border interoperability, and share knowledge on the emerging technology.
[READ: European Central Bank bigwig outlines why Facebook’s Libra isn’t real cryptocurrency ]
Initial members include the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the European Central bank (EBC), the Sveriges Riksbank, the Swiss National Bank, and the Banks of England, Canada, and Japan.
Benoît Cœuré, the head of the BIS Innovation Hub, will co-chair the group alongside Bank of England deputy governor Jon Cunliffe.
The move comes as social media giant Facebook wrestles to launch its own digital currency, Libra, in as many jurisdictions as possible.
Announced mid-2019, the project ruffled feathers of institutions worldwide, and forced many to consider regulating cryptocurrencies, fearing they could destabilize the global economy — particularly by weakening reliance on the Euro .
Just today, Australia‘s banking watchdog warned it could oversee Facebook‘s local launch of Libra, as new government frameworks bring large digital wallets (such as operational wallets like Calibra) under jurisdiction of the nation’s regulators.
CBDCs primed to be the big crypto story of 2020
While many have anticipated the launch of CBDCs since Facebook revealed its plans for Libra, the two might not exactly cancel each other out.
Earlier this month, EBC president Christine Lagarde maintained that while the EBC is certainly looking into the benefits of developing its own digital currency, it shouldn’t deter private enterprises from launching their own.
The formation of the group also represents a one-eighty in attitude for the ECB. In 2018, former president Mario Draghi wrote off the idea of a European bank issuing its own digital currency, citing no “concrete need.”
Europe aside, China is also getting familiar with CBDCs. In fact, the nation’s Communist Party just released a 200-page handbook written to help party cadres prepare to navigate a new financial landscape that includes digital currencies.
