Compiled by RAHIMY RAHIM, TAN SIN CHOW AND R.ARAVINTAN
MORE than 20 people have fallen victim to an “AI-calculated Bitcoin price” trading scam, suffering losses of at least RM150,000.
China Press reported that victims could not withdraw funds after downloading a mobile application and carrying out trades as instructed.
The victims span all age groups – young, middle-aged and elderly – with most coming from northern states, including Penang, Perak, and Kedah.
They recently held a press conference in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, where eight of the victims confirmed they had lodged police reports.
Total losses amounted to RM158,800, with one individual losing as much as RM49,000.
One victim, identified only as Wong, said he was introduced to the scheme by a friend in August.
He said they were told that artificial intelligence (AI) was used to predict market movements in the scheme, which involved Bitcoin traded against the US dollar.
He said investors were told to log into a designated mobile application at 1.30pm and 9.30pm daily to “copy trades”.
Wong said syndicate members claimed withdrawals would be possible this month, but no payouts were ever made.
> Sin Chew Daily reported that even eight hours after his death, a 32-year-old programmer in Guangdong, China, still received work-related messages on his phone.
The death of Gao Guanghui is just one example in China’s ongoing problem of programmers dying from overwork, long hours and extreme job pressure.
Even after the hospital had officially pronounced him dead, a message was still sent to his phone saying: “The inspection didn’t pass, you need to revise this.”
Gao’s wife, identified as Li, wrote on social media that she had urged her husband to come home between 9pm and 10pm.
She recalled that on the day of the incident, Gao woke up unusually early and complained of feeling unwell, saying he felt dizzy, could not stand up and believed he had lost bladder control.
Li decided to take him to hospital. Gao even brought his laptop with him, intending to continue working if possible.
However, he collapsed on the way and was rushed to hospital, where resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
