Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Tuesday, September 18 have clearly stated that a fraudulent website has been soliciting investments in Bitcoins by using fabricated comments from Deputy Prime Minister and MAS Chairman, Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
The screenshot of the story, shared by MAS on Tuesday has shown an article, with a headline that says, "Tharman Shanmugaratnam Invests $1 Billion for All Singapore Resident. USE HIS Method To Become Rich in Just 7 Days!"
In between the headline and the picture, which includes the image of Shanmugaratnam, a section called 'AS SEEN ON' has shown five media outlet's logo such as, BBC World News, Daily Mail, Channel NewsAsia, CNN International and The Straits Times.
The article states that the MAS chairman is a "venture capitalist" who confirmed the entry of Singapore into the bitcoin cryptocurrency market. The site also asked the readers to sign up for a bitcoin account and then it requests for their credit card and bank account details.
While addressing this news as a fake content, MAS said, "The website's article on Bitcoins is highly deceptive and misleading. The statements attributed to DPM Tharman are completely false, apart from his observation that trading volumes in cryptocurrency are low in Singapore."
In addition, MAS said that people should start "exercise extreme caution and avoid providing any financial or personal information on the forms linked to the website. Putting money in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins is highly risky."
As per the statement, MAS had issued an advisory to alert the public about the risk of cryptocurrency investments on December 19, 2017.
"DPM Tharman had in fact stated in a reply to a Parliamentary Question on 5 February 2018 that Singaporeans 'could lose their shirts when they invest money in cryptocurrencies'," it added.
People are asked to inform the police if they suspect that any particular investment could be fraudulent or misused for other unlawful activities. If anyone needs more information on cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency investments, they can MoneySENSE's consumer alerts.
