M’sian woman receives S$91,000 bill after ex-tenant steals electricity for cryptocurrency mining
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MALAYSIA: A woman from Sarawak, Malaysia, has been slapped with a RM300,000 (S$91,300) power bill because a person who previously rented her home allegedly stole electricity for cryptocurrency mining.
According to a report in Sin Chew Daily on Tuesday (Aug 26), the woman, identified only as Ms Wang, has been told by Sarawak Energy that if she does not pay the outstanding bill, the power supply to her house will be cut off in the near future.
What is cryptocurrency mining?
Cryptocurrency mining, a crucial part in ordering and validating blockchain transactions, uses a lot of electricity because of the way the network and validating transactions have been designed. Cryptocurrency miners need large amounts of computing resources, which help keep blockchain networks secure. Additionally, the intense competition between cryptocurrency miners forces them to run extraordinary amounts of hardware for hours on end.
Electricity is cryptocurrency miners’ largest expense, which is why some have resorted to illegal means of obtaining the large amounts of power that they need. This often happens in places where cryptocurrency miners want to evade detection.
Help from the DAP
Ms Wang has since turned to Michael Kong, the secretary of Sarawak Pakatan Harapan and Democratic Action Party (DAP), for help. He has had the harried landlord visit his law firm to determine the best way to handle Ms Wang’s dilemma.
Sin Chew Daily reported that Ms Wang rented out her one-storey house to a tenant from the western part of the country several years ago. He regularly paid the monthly rent of RM1,200 (S$365), as well as his utility bills, on time, and she felt grateful to have such a responsible tenant.
However, this caused her to grow lax, and when his lease expired after a year, she did not renew it. Instead, she and the tenant only had a verbal agreement for the succeeding three years.
She received a shock in 2024 when she was contacted by Sarawak Energy. The power company informed her in a letter that her tenant had been stealing electricity on a large scale as he carried out cryptocurrency mining.
The DAP secretary has since called the move by the power company unreasonable, saying it threatened the rights of an innocent homeowner. /TISG
Read also: Singapore hammers down on crypto firms serving overseas clients, no grace period given