China arrests money launderers who used digital yuan

China uncovered money laundering activities using similar methods to what they’d try for a debit or credit card scam but adapted for the pilot central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Eleven people allegedly linked to a Cambodian money laundering ring have been arrested with China’s Skynet mass video surveillance being used to track the culprits.

Mu Changchun, the Director-General of China’s central bank Digital Currency Research Institute, revealed that his organization is currently focusing on CBDC security such as enhancing encryption algorithm security, financial information security, data security, and business continuity.

According to Mu, there's an anonymous tier where people can open a wallet with just a phone number.

Hence, it’s probably just as easy for fraudsters to use their usual tactics to hijack legitimate bank accounts and use identity data to open digital wallets with higher thresholds.

A partial solution to the issue is a locally stored face scan or fingerprint to be associated with the wallet.

However, this would preclude prepaid cards, which are needed for inclusion. The risk is fraudsters might resort to kidnapping people and forcing them to scan their faces or fingerprints.