Our weekly roundup of news from Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
Chinese elderly clicker game cults are homewreckers
The Chinese online community has been complaining that their parents are becoming obsessed with cult-like cryptocurrency “mining” groups that are scamming the nation’s elderly, local finance outlet Blue Whale Finance reports.
The so-called mining apps related to the schemes are simple, even for the technically illiterate. They require participants to rapidly tap phone screens to accumulate points, as well as complete daily tasks like watching videos and ads.
Crypto clicker games are rising and breaking Chinese families. (Hanny Naibaho/Unsplash)
This concept is similar to viral Telegram-based clicker games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, though these games have rewarded users with airdrops, or at least promise to do so.
That’s not the case in China’s elderly tapping cults. Scammers often ask victims to pay fees and invite acquaintances into the group. Some apps even acquire users’ documents by asking them to go through Know Your Customerverification.
One source reportedly told the local news outfit that their grandmother invested a portion of her retirement savings after initially earning 20,000 yuan (around $2,800) in the scheme, but hasn’t been able to withdraw anything since then.
The outlet cited one former member of such groups to claim that participants are brainwashed and negative opinions are met with hostile responses or community bans.
These behaviors are brought home to families, and children’s warnings against the groups lead to arguments.
“My aunts were just like what was written in this article,” one reader commented.
“They insisted that the scam was real. They still believed it even when the scammer asked her to pay a 10% handling fee.”
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