Beware of illegal cryptocurrency mining operations

IPOH: Premises suspected to be running illegal cryptocurrency mining operations and stealing electricity should be reported to the police, says Perak police chief Comm Datuk Mior Wahid Faridalathrash.

These mining operations could usually be identified by the exhaust fan installed at the back of the building, he said.

“It is part of the cooling system for their mining machines,” he added.

The police held two joint operations over the past week in Manjung on premises found to be stealing electricity and running illegal cryptocurrency mining activities.

A Malaysian man was arrested last Wednesday with equipment worth RM3.5mil being seized, while a second operation saw equipment worth about RM1.6mil being seized.

Police checked 122 premises with 46 of them found to be running these mining activities.

Comm Mior Faridalathrash said cryptocurrency mining operations would typically take place in densely-populated areas or near industrial zones where electricity consumption was high, to conceal their activity.

“If they operate in areas that do not have a lot of activity, it would alert Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).

“TNB is able to detect such operations if there is abnormally high usage of electricity,” he told reporters yesterday after attending the state police contingent’s monthly gathering at the Police Air Wing unit training base here.

Comm Mior Faridalathrash said building owners renting out their premises should be aware of their tenants’ activities to ensure no law was being broken.

“We are working closely with TNB to curtail these operations that are stealing electricity and disrupting other users,” he said.

Separately, Comm Mior Faridalathrash said that state police had collected about RM18mil in traffic summonses when discount was offered last month.

He said this included RM16mil that was paid during the 80% discount campaign from Dec 9-30.

The discount was offered in conjunction with the “Aspirasi Keluarga Malaysia” event.