Scam warning as Colombia’s President ‘endorses’ Bitcoin Era

The Colombian police have issued a warning about fraudsters promoting a Bitcoin scam website to social media users.

The “announcement” about the launch of a fake Bitcoin-related investment system was purportedly “approved” by Ivan Duque, President of Colombia.

According to Colombia Check, quoting a statement by the Cybernetic Police Center, the site promotes a Bitcoin investment opportunity (BTC) that Duque is quoted as saying will offer “relief to the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.”

The post claims that the president signed “the biggest deal of the century” to create a platform named Bitcoin Era, and citizens could start soon to “generate incomes via cryptocurrencies.”

The site features an interview with Bitcoin Era’s apparent CEO, Diego García, who explains how the system works. However there are some tip offs to the scam.

First, the interview is just copy-pasted from another from a year ago by the “CEO” of another scam site, Crypto Genius. Second, the photo used in the blog post belongs to a Youtuber and voice-actor, Pete Accetturo.

The fraudsters also added reviews from fake users that have been testing the fake system.

One of the users’ photos, named José Ruiz, is in reality a Mexican student, Adán Cortés, who became famous for breaking into the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for Afghan activist Malala Yousafzai.

The same type of scam is also used in several countries by fraudsters. British TV presenter and former X-Factor star, Rylan Clark-Neal, alerted his followers as to “fake interview” claiming that Rylan had made “millions from Bitcoin.”

On April 18, the former Celebrity Big Brother star tweeted that a fraudulent interview impersonating U.K. publication, The Daily Mirror, was circulating on Facebook.

Also, Hugh Jackman, Gordan Ramsey, and Martin Lewis sued Facebook over being impersonated by Bitcoin scammers on the platform in 2018.