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Facebook Removes Bitcoin Scam Masquerading Abu Dhabi Crown Prince

Facebook has reportedly removed a  bitcoin (BTC) scam ads that were masqueraded as posts from the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, as reported by a UAE news site The National on June 30.

As per the report, a social media scam dubbed as “Bitcoin Loophole”, claimed that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed has personally endorsed a scheme that guaranteed high return within a week via trading in bitcoin. 

While the social media giant reportedly deleted the fraudulent posts, but not before thousands of investors end up sharing their personal information and money to the said criminal hailing from Ukraine and Argentina. 

As per the report, investors were asked to make an up-front donation of 1,000 UAE dirhams ($272), claiming that with this bitcoin investment strategy is the prince’s way of “giving back to the people.” Bitcoin Loophole said it would net investors $13,000 per day. 

Purportedly, the scam managed to convince the investors by presenting combining claims about the bitcoin scheme along with details from an actual economic stimulus package devised by the Sheik.  Further, the post also included used images from a United States-based journalist and even faked quotes from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

In order to combat the fraud, the Abu Dhabi Media Office has released a statement that warns the public to be vigilant about such possibly fraudulent investment schemes, stating that government figures will only make announcements through official channels. A Facebook spokesperson told The National:

“Claiming to be another person on Facebook violates our community standards, and we have a dedicated team that’s tasked with helping to detect and block these kinds of scams.”

Facebook was amongst the first major social media platform to ban cryptocurrency-related ads in January 2018. At the time, the platform explained their action of banning ads that “misleading or deceptive promotional practices,” while specifically mentioning initial coin offerings and cryptocurrencies.

Social media has been often used to fake statements from famous figures in order to promote fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. Just last year, scammers masqueraded as Tesla founder Elon Musk and promoted a bitcoin scam. The Fraudsters managed to hack verified Twitter accounts, wherein they changed the account name to Elon Musk and fool users. 

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