A series of scam articles featuring a host of Maltese ministers advertising a fraudulent trading scheme, have hit Maltese social media just hours after budget day on Monday October 27.
The scam articles feature a series of interviews, purportedly published by the Times of Malta, in which ministers discuss an AI-powered investment platform that they claim will take people from rags to riches in the blink of an eye.
The articles claim that investing a one-time payment of €215 through the NethertoxAGENT trading platform will guarantee a weekly payout of €850.
While the premise may be familiar to anyone who has come across similar scams in the past, the most recent scam articles suggest a level of sophistication rarely seen previously.
Several of the articles feature deepfake videos of Economy Minister Silvio Schembri speaking about the scheme in a passable, albeit imperfect, impersonation of his voice.
In one article, Schembri is quizzed at length on the fraudulent platform by ‘journalists’ from several media houses, including MaltaToday, Newsbook, the Malta Independent and TVM, among others.
The same article then falsely features a list of testimonials from local financial experts, including a former governor of the Central Bank and current president of Lombard Bank, the current Malta Financial Services Authority CEO and other notable experts in the field.
The testimonials also include the experts’ genuine photographs, lending credibility to the scam.
Other similar articles use the logos of leading local businesses, such as Tumas Group and AX, together with those of state entities, to depict them as supporting the fraudulent scheme.
While some articles feature only Schembri, others also include other leading political figures, including Clyde Caruana, Ian Borg, Robert Abela and Roberta Metsola.
One article features the byline of Times of Malta journalist Matthew Bonanno.
However, scratching beneath the surface reveals several cracks in the scam articles’ credibility.
Rather than the typical Times of Malta URL, as one would expect to see, the website’s URL is listed as “sicilyunwrapped.com”.
Another article presents a familiar but unexpected face among a list of testimonials.
Listed as Claire, a 45-year-old shopkeeper from Mosta, a photo of Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar informs readers that her income from the scheme has helped pay off her son’s university fees.
Online scams have increasingly become a scourge on local law enforcement and financial authorities.
A recent study found that over 40% of Malta’s highest earners lost money to online scams
Last month, a Times Talk episode chronicled the emotional and financial devastation caused by online scams in Malta.
In recent weeks, a Ukrainian woman was charged with money laundering linked to a similar deepfake scam of Robert Abela in which a woman lost her life savings.
A screengrab from a video used by the scammers.
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Originally published here.
