The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued an advisory warning people about a website that has been soliciting investments in bitcoins.
The site makes use of fabricated comments attributed to Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, and Chairman of MAS, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. It also attempts to impersonate a news page from local media organisation The Straits Times.
“The information on the website is highly deceptive and misleading. The statements attributed to SM Tharman are completely false,” MAS said in a statement.
The fraudulent site asks for payments into a purported Bitcoin trading platform and tries to obtain credit card or bank account information from readers.
MAS noted that in the past year, there have been numerous websites fraudulently using the names and photographs of ministers and other prominent public personalities to solicit Bitcoin investments.
The central bank urged members of the public to exercise caution and avoid providing any financial or personal information on the forms linked to the website.