Malta Issues Warning to Traders About New Bitcoin Scam

By Debarun Gupta

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a warning to its residents and local users to alert them of a new Bitcoin scam called “Bitcoin Revolution” that is doing the rounds on social media across the world.

In circulation since January 10, the scheme uses imaged of local celebrities falsely advertising that they have become wealthy after trading in cryptocurrencies through prescribed crypto investments found on the bitcoinrevolution.org site and others.

The MFSA has confirmed that Bitcoin Revolution has no registration or license in Malta and as such has no legal right to offer financial services. Thought to be like a get-rich-quick type, the scam promises wealth to the victim in minutes.

The criminal acts came into light after the local celebrities whose images were being used on the advertisements reported to the local authorities because the images were being used without their permission. A local TV star David Tucci was claimed to have turned a 250 euro deposit into 430 euros in eight minutes using the scheme. He later confirmed that this was simply a generated media hype:

“Please note I have nothing whatsoever to do with this, I have never engaged in such tradings, never did I authorize or approve of such material being published or advertised. This is clearly a scam and click-bait, please don’t buy into this.”

Part of Bitcoin Revolution’s “act” is using attractive advertisements and to that effect, article sand ads on Facebook have been published showing that Mr Tucci had used the services of Bitcoin Revolution to acquire a wealth of 2.3 million euros after he became bankrupt.

The scam may well be new to Malta but it has clearly been doing the rounds for some time, previously known in other guises, more recently as the ‘Online Profit Generator,’ a system created by Anders Thomsen capable of earning its users as much as USD 2765.25 per day through automated online trades.

A similar situation occurred again recently when TV Chef Jamie Oliver became the target of another Bitcoin Revolution advertising material which said that he was closing down his Barbecoa and Fifteen Restaurant in order to “take over the Bitcoin market,” adding that he had partnered with Billionaire Virgin Entrepreneur Richard Branson to “change the definition of money.”

Debarun Gupta

Debarun is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and writing when he’s not watching cat videos on YouTube.

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