MAS warns public of fake bitcoin investment website featuring PM Lee Hsien Loong
SINGAPORE — The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Friday (16 August) warned the public of a fraudulent website soliciting bitcoin investments by using fake comments attributed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The website, hosted on investing-review.com, attempts to “impersonate a news page from a local media organisation”, said the MAS.
The “article”, headlined with “Breaking News: Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day message leaves all big banks terrified”, claimed that Lee had revealed a new “wealth loophole” that can “transform anyone into a multimillionaire within three to four months”.
A photo of Lee as well as logos of various local media platforms were included in the write-up.
“The information on the website is highly deceptive and misleading. The statements attributed to PM Lee are completely false,” the MAS said.
The public is advised by the authority to avoid providing any financial or personal information on the forms linked from the website, where readers are asked to fill in their credit card or bank account information as well as make payments for a purported Bitcoin trading platform.
Anyone who suspects that an investment could be fraudulent or misused for other unlawful activities should report such cases to the police, added the authority.
The MAS also noted that there have been “numerous” such websites where the names and photographs of ministers and other prominent public personalities are used to solicit bitcoin investments in the past year, but it did not specify how many.
More recently, on 31 July, it issued a warning for a similar website that was soliciting bitcoin investments by using fake comments attributed to Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.
The authority also previously issued such warnings for sites using fake comments attributed to MAS chairman and Senior Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
This is not the first time Lee has been featured on a fraudulent website soliciting bitcoin investments.
Back in September last year, Lee highlighted in a Facebook post that he was featured in one such website and called for the “cooperation” of various stakeholders, including businesses, media organisations and the public, to counter such scams.
“Countering fake news is not something the government can do alone,” wrote Lee then. “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet!”
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