The police counted more than 2.38 million yuan of stolen money and other stolen evidence.

(reported by reporter Qiu Junfu)

[Reporter Ou Yuxiang/Taipei Report] A suspect has set up bitcoin machines "BTM" in commercial hotspots around the world for fraudulent groups to use as money laundering tools.

In this regard, Peng Shaofu, chairman of the Taiwan Blockchain University Alliance, said that this is a low-level money laundering and fraud method. In recent years, unscrupulous elements have used virtual currency to commit fraud, which may affect the reputation of virtual currency, and then affect the development of Taiwan's currency circle. Knowledge promotion.

Peng Shaofu said that there are not many companies setting up BTMs in Taiwan, and they must complete a KYC (customer identity due diligence) declaration, mainly to prevent money laundering; there are announcements of compliance companies on the website of the Financial Supervisory Commission, and the public should confirm that the installers are legitimate and credible. After that, use it again to avoid being cheated or used by fraudulent groups.

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Peng Shaofu said that the Bitcoin machine is the virtual currency version of the ATM.

Users can deposit cash to exchange virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, and then deposit the coins into the virtual wallet; and the setting operator, like the virtual currency exchange, must complete the legal compliance statement of the Financial Supervisory Commission before it can be set up legally.

With the expansion of the market, compliant exchanges such as BitoEX and MaiCoin have also cooperated with supermarkets, and virtual currencies can also be purchased at the supermarkets.

In the fraud case, the suspects made a profit by taking a fee of 12% of the total transaction value.

Peng Shaofu analyzed that even the regular BTM is inconvenient for people in the currency circle to use and the handling fee is high. If you don't understand virtual currency transactions at all, or you want to launder money, you will never use this kind of illegal BTM.

Peng Shaofu also said that there are almost no cases of fraud and money laundering using BTM.

Because BTM, like ATM, has cameras and needs to deposit banknotes one by one, the risk of being caught and the cost of money laundering are high, but the efficiency is low.

However, because most of them are not compliant operators, it is difficult to trace money laundering using informal exchanges, and it is also difficult to recover the victims’ money. Therefore, the public should still strengthen their understanding of virtual currency and understand compliant operators from the website of the Financial Regulatory Commission, and then carry out related invest or use.