On December 3, 2019, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued a warning about a fake Bitcoin website for Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. This site uses makeup quotes from him and pretends to be a news site from a local media organization. In it, they require users to pay for a Bitcoin trading program or trick people into giving out their credit card account or bank account information.
Source: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
Monetary Authority of Singapore: Bitcoin fraud sites can hurt you
“The information on the website is highly deer and misleading. The statements attributed to Senior Minister Tharman are completely false,” MAS stated.
Besides, MAS urges the public not to provide personal information on suspected fraudulent websites. Moreover, if you encounter such cases, please notify the police immediately.
Taking advantage of the reputation and reputation of celebrities, sites like this always aim to lead users to put money into fraudulent programs. In September 2018, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was also used for such criminal purposes. This year, criminals targeted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, actors Mediacorp Bryan Wong and Zoe Tay, and billionaire Lim Oon Kuin.
Referring to this issue, Aaron Brif, a global solutions engineer for Sophos, said:
“The creators of these campaigns usually expect them to be torn down quickly, so have ready-to-execute succession plans. If the ad is removed for one party, the next one will recycle it.”
Moreover, such disguised websites can trick people because we tend to believe in names we know. Furthermore, we are more secure when having their photos on that information.
Brif concludes:
“This could lead to many disastrous outcomes such as identity theft, further financial fleecing, or worse, bankruptcy. Anyway, supplying personal information on these sites means they are no longer your information anymore.”
Crypto scams never end
As to whether the chicken came first or the egg first. Due to greedy users or the tricks of criminals so sophisticated, the cryptocurrency market is now full of scams. Moreover, news of fake cryptocurrency projects is still rampant on social media. This causes significant damage to the reputation of celebrities.
Dutch media tycoon, John de Mol, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook for failing to crack down on fraudulent advertisements. The perfect result is that he has won. Besides, Jeremy Clarkson and Elon Musk are also among the unlucky promoters for cryptocurrency scams.
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