A new scam has been affecting Maltese Facebook users during the last few months. According to a recent report released by Malta Today, there are ads that use political and entertainment figures promising Bitcoin fortunes to individuals in the country.

One of the ads was using the name of Davide Tucci, a recognized and famous actor in the country. The ad claimed that he was able to make 2.3 million euros after bankruptcy. The promoted article invites users to be part of ‘the Bitcoin revolution.’

Several comments of fake accounts and users tried to convince individuals with success stories of how they were able to make millions of dollars in a short period of time.

Interested users had to provide credit card information and also a €250 initial investment. Nevertheless, this turned out to be completely fake. Indeed, Tucci informed Facebook followers that he had no connection with these ads.

About it, he wrote:

“Allegations of bankruptcy are serious. I have worked so hard over the last few years to build a name and a career for myself as an actor, and for my name and image to be used by such scammers is utterly disgusting.”

However, this is not the first time that Tucci is involved in these scams. In the past, fake profiles of him were asking credit card details to users. In order to stop these scams and ads, he reported the fake campaign to the Cyber Crime Unit.

As per the local police, these kinds of crimes increased during the last months. Furthermore, they mentioned that the investigations started as soon as an individual launches a formal complaint on the matter.

Apparently, the Cyber Crime Unit received 193 cases related to fraud in the first nine months of 2017. Later in 2018, the number increased to 314 in the same months. These were not the only scams that took place in the space. Other individuals reported fake advertisements as well.

Something interesting about this issue is that Facebook approved these ads. Back in 2018, Facebook banned cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) related ads from its platform due to a large number of scams registered.

According to Malta Today, these scammers were using real people rather than bots. In general, the ads were aware of the Maltese culture.

Facebook aimed at protecting users from scammers and fraudulent companies promoting Ponzi or pyramid schemes. As Facebook informed back in January 2018, they want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services without having to be worried about scams or deception.

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