Hong Kong lawmakers urge ban on bitcoin as scam victims turn to police

Hong Kong lawmakers are urging authorities to ban bitcoin after more than 25 people flocked to police headquarters to complain about a scam involving the digital currency that media estimate could have duped investors of up to US$387 million. The company at the center of the scam, MyCoin, describes itself on its website as a “leading global Bitcoin trading platform and application service provider”. MyCoin promised clients a return of HK$1 million ($128,966) over a four-month period, based on a HK$400,000 investment that would produce 90 bitcoins on maturity, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday. It claimed to have 3,000 customers investing an average of HK$1 million each, the paper said.

The government should not just stand aside. It’s simply not enough to just ask people to exercise caution when investing … it has to ban the circulation of such virtual currency in the market.

Lawmaker Leung Yiu-chung, who accompanied the complainants to the police station

The complainants – among them Nepalese, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong citizens – were accompanied to the police station by lawmakers Leung Yiu-chung and James To, who are calling for a complete ban on the digital currency. A police official declined to say how many complaints had been made, but said a statement would be issued. Bitcoins are created through a “mining” process that uses a computer’s resources to perform millions of calculations. Advocates say the virtual currency is revolutionary as it is not controlled by a central bank.

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