Macao’s Judiciary Police (known by the Portuguese initials PJ) have teamed up with crypto exchange giant Binance to combat online scams targeting crypto investors, according to a statement released by the company on Tuesday.
The partnership, currently running as a month-long trial, will see Binance users receive pop-up messages “reminding them to stay vigilant” when withdrawing assets from the company’s platform, the statement said. Each message will have the PJ’s official logo at the top, and be headed with the words, “Macau Judiciary Police Reminder.”
According to Binance’s statement, official figures show phone and online fraud caused losses of more than 310 million patacas (approximately US$38.6 million) in the SAR last year.
[See more: Macao police have launched a new anti-fraud programme]
A representative from Binance’s financial crimes compliance unit said that the company had run similar campaigns in other jurisdictions, including in Hong Kong. He said these previous experiences made him confident the Macao operation would “effectively prevent crime and protect users’ assets.”
This is not Binance’s first time working with the Macao authorities. In June, the PJ invited Binance to train officers from the Criminal Investigation Department and Gaming-related and Economic Crimes Investigation Department in how to investigate blockchain and virtual asset-related crimes.
Binance operates one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in terms of daily trading. It was founded in Shanghai in 2017 but is no longer based in China. While Binance is popular in many jurisdictions, the US and UK have warned people against using its platform.
