Scammers using former Singapore Prime Minister’s name to solicit bitcoin investments

A website in Singapore has been soliciting investments in bitcoins (BTC) by using fake comments from the country’s former Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the nation’s central bank, announced the news on Wednesday, stating that the website, Bitcoin Loophole, asks visitors to make a minimum initial deposit of $250 for initiating trades on their behalf. It also asks for credit cards or bank accounts details.

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The website’s content mentioning comments of Goh, who is currently a senior advisor to MAS, are “either false or have been taken out of context and used in a misleading way,” the central bank said.

MAS further said that there had been other websites as well in the past that fraudulently used names and photographs of ministers and other public personalities to solicit bitcoin investments, and has advised the public to exercise “extreme caution.”

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.