A Singaporean billionaire, Lim Oon Kuin, has recently fallen victim to a fake interview published by a long-running scam referred to as the “Bitcoin Revolution.”
The Bitcoin Revolution scam has been around for a while, with its latest target being Kuin and his oil trading company Hin Leong Group this Tuesday.
Here, the scam created a fake interview that states Kuin was speaking positively of digital assets like Bitcoin. It also houses false links that ask readers to put in their personal data such as credit card information to invest.
According to The Stratis Times, the interview article is designed to look like it is linked to Singapore Press Holdings, bringing with some form of legitimacy to confuse potential investors.
What’s worse is that this article was making its rounds on Facebook, spreading the misinformation even further. Since the occurance, Facebook had said that all advertisements and accounts related to the scam have been removed.
Speaking to the publication was Kuin’s spokesperson, stating that he “does not condone any of the alleged statements and representations set out in the article which are attributed to him.”
Kuin, the 18th richest person in Singapore according to Forbes, isn’t the first to fall victim to such scams. In fact, Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong was targeted last month in a similar article. Not only was the structure and even some images the same, but it also fabricated comments from the Prime Minister that simply were not true.
Of course, we live in a world surrounded by fake news. Websites like this one are spread all across the internet, posing as legitimate cryptocurrency trading spaces or others in order to convince general consumers to throw away their money.
Falsifying endorsements from figures with influence is another way to bring legitimacy to such websites, as many out there tend to trust the first thing they see rather than do due diligence. Scammers love to prey on these types of people.
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