Singapore’s Financial Regulator Blows Whistle on Bitcoin Scam

A website that uses fake claims to get Singaporean investors to buy bitcoin has been called out by the country’s financial regulator. 

Singapore’s Central Bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), announced that the website made fabricated statements attributed to Goh Chok Tong, the country’s former prime minister, to solicit bitcoin investment. 

The website asks investors to deposit a minimum of $250 into a supposed platform called Bitcoin Loophole, as well as other financial information, so that it could run trades for the investor, according to MAS. The authority warned potential investors to be wary of the site, adding that any comments relating to Goh found on the website are entirely fabricated.

MAS reminded investors to be wary of fraudulent websites that use fake celebrity endorsements to get investors to part ways with their funds in exchange for cryptocurrency. 

This isn’t the first time that Bitcoin Loophole has been in the limelight for its scam operations. Back in June 2019, the platform reportedly had its ads blocked by Facebook for running a celebrity endorsement scam featuring Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, erroneously endorsing a scheme that promised immense riches within a week. The operators asked for 1,000 dirhams ($272 at the time) in up-front investments, adding that they’d net investors $13,000 per day.