News
Videos Show Public Figures Promoting MaltaCoin, a New Cryptocurrency
Claim: Some videos show prominent Maltese public figures promoting a crypto program approved by the Central Bank.
Verdict: Videos use deepfake audio to trick viewers into investing in a scam.
Neither Arnold Cassola nor Edward Scicluna are promoting a new digital bank and cryptocurrency launched by the Central Bank of Malta, and entrepreneur Martina Zammit has not invested in the bank, as the latest cryptocurrency scam going around would have you believe.
The three appear in a series of doctored videos along with other people, including Times of Malta deputy editor Mario Xuereb.
A video features clips from a TV interview between Xuereb and Cassola ahead of last month’s European Parliament elections, adding a deepfake audio track of both Xuereb and Cassola.
“The Central Bank of Malta has announced the launch of a Bitcoin bank,” Cassola exclaims in the manipulated footage, continuing to talk about how citizens can earn thousands of euros through this scheme.
The video then cuts to a series of interviews with citizens, including Zammit, who talk about how the program “completely changed (their) lives.” Again, each interview is manipulated through the use of deepfake audio that mimics the tone and timbre of each speaker’s voice.
The video uses footage of a real person being interviewed.
In another manipulated video promoting the same scam, Central Bank Governor Edward Scicluna tells viewers that the Central Bank is launching a cryptocurrency called MaltaCoin.
Scicluna, again via deepfake audio, is shown saying that he expects “MaltaCoin to show rapid growth due to its investment appeal and direct government support,” before asking viewers to submit their personal details via an online form.
Another video shows Edward Scicluna saying that the Central Bank was launching a new cryptocurrency
Posts sharing these videos link to a number of fake websites, including a cloned Times of Malta article containing a fake report on the launch of MaltaCoin and a website using the Central Bank’s logo to promote Bitcoin Bank Malta.
The videos first appeared in May
The videos are not new, but appear to have resurfaced in recent days and been reported to the Times of Malta by readers.
Both Cassola and Xuereb told the Times of Malta that they became aware of the videos as early as May and immediately reported them to the police.
In correspondence seen by the Times of Malta, the police cyber crime unit told Cassola that the police could not take any action as there appeared to be “no crime” and they had not received any reports indicating that anyone had “suffered financial harm as a result of viewing the videos”.
Instead, police suggested, the video should be reported directly to Facebook.
But there is no doubt that the scam has left victims in its wake. One victim, writing on Facebook, said that the €250 he had sent following the instructions in the videos had “disappeared.”
Fake Facebook Profiles
The videos are being shared by a series of fake Facebook profiles, all created in recent months and posing as legitimate businesses, such as clothing and design shops.
The pages list the Croatian city of Zagreb as their address, but records indicate that they are operated by users in various countries, including Vietnam, India, and the Philippines.
Posts promoting cryptocurrency scams have plagued social media platforms for years, but they have become increasingly widespread and, in some cases, difficult to identify.
Audio deepfakes have become increasingly adept at mimicking the tone and timbre of people’s voices, with AI experts tell According to the Times of Malta, half a minute of audio is enough for the artificial intelligence software to accurately reproduce a person’s speech patterns and inflection.
Scammers are becoming increasingly adept at riding the wave of current events and using the news cycle to further their fraudulent schemes.
Another scam currently circulating involves the persona of Neville Gafa, a former civil servant who recently rose to prominence for a series of controversial posts about senior Labour Party figures.
A recent scam using the persona of Neville Gafa demonstrates how scammers have learned to follow the news cycle.
Central banks appear to be particularly popular targets for scammers, with a spokesperson for the Central Bank of Malta telling the Times of Malta that it was “aware that several national central banks in the Eurosystem have recently been targeted by deepfake videos.”
In the past, the Times of Malta has investigated several similar scams, including some that used J numbersoseph muscat and robert abelaand that of actor Russell Crowe.
Verdict
Several doctored videos shared on social media overlay real footage with deepfake audio to trick viewers into believing that popular politicians are promoting a fraudulent encryption system.
The videos first surfaced in May but have resurfaced in recent days. The videos are being promoted by fake Facebook accounts and use a fake Times of Malta report to appear legitimate.
Directing them to a website that uses the Central Bank’s logo and encourages users to provide personal data.
Similar scams have already been debunked on several occasions.
This statement is therefore falseas the evidence clearly refutes this claim.
Malta’s weather fact-checking service is part of the Mediterranean Digital Media Observatory (MedDMO) and the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO)an independent observatory with hubs in all 27 EU member states, funded by the EU’s Digital Europe programme. The fact-checks are based on our code of principles.
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