Claim: Videos show leading Maltese public figures promoting a Central Bank-endorsed crypto scheme.
Verdict: The videos use audio deepfakes to deceive viewers into investing in a scam.
Neither Arnold Cassola nor Edward Scicluna are promoting a new digital bank and cryptocurrency launched by Malta’s Central Bank, and entrepreneur Martina Zammit did not invest in the bank, as the latest crypto scam doing the rounds would have you believe.
The three feature in a series of manipulated videos alongside several other people, including Times of Malta assistant editor Mario Xuereb.
One video borrows footage from a TV interview between Xuereb and Cassola in the run-up to last month’s European Parliament election, adding an audio track featuring deepfakes of both Xuereb and Cassola.
“The Central Bank of Malta has announced the launch of a Bitcoin bank,” Cassola exclaims in the manipulated footage, going on to speak about how citizens can earn thousands of Euros through the scheme.
The video then cuts to a series of interviews with citizens, including Zammit, talking about how the scheme “completely changed (their) life”. Again, each interview is manipulated through the use of audio deepfakes imitating the tone and timbre of each speaker’s voice.
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, once again through an audio deepfake, is shown saying that he expects “MaltaCoin to show rapid growth due to its investment appeal and direct support from the government”, before asking viewers to submit their personal details through an online form.
The posts sharing these videos point to a series of fake websites, including a cloned Times of Malta article featuring a fake report about the launch of MaltaCoin and a website using the Central Bank’s logo to promote Bitcoin Bank Malta.
Videos first surfaced in May
The videos aren’t new but appear to have resurfaced in recent days, with readers flagging them to Times of Malta.
Both Cassola and Xuereb told Times of Malta that they had been made aware of the videos back in May, even flagging them to the police at the time.
In correspondence seen by Times of Malta, the police’s cybercrime unit told Cassola that the police cannot take any action as there appears to be “no crime” and they didn’t receive any reports indicating that anyone had “suffered financial damages as a result of watching the videos”.
Instead, the police suggested, the video should be reported directly to Facebook.
But there is little doubt the scam has left victims in its wake. One victim, writing on Facebook, said that the €250 he had sent following the videos’ instructions had “disappeared”.
Fake Facebook profiles
The videos are being shared by a series of fake Facebook profiles, all of them created in recent months and posing as legitimate businesses such as clothing and design stores.
The pages list their address as being in the Croatian city of Zagreb, but records indicate that they are managed by users based across various countries, including Vietnam, India and the Philippines.
Posts promoting cryptocurrency scams have plagued social media platforms for years, but have become increasingly widespread and, in some cases, difficult to identify.
Audio deepfakes have become increasingly adept at imitating the tone and timbre of people’s voices, with AI experts telling Times of Malta that half a minute of audio is enough for AI software to accurately reproduce a person’s speech patterns and inflexion.
Scammers are also getting better at jumping on the bandwagon of current affairs and using the news cycle to promote their fraudulent schemes.
Another scam currently doing the rounds is using the figure of Neville Gafa, a former civil servant who has recently hit headlines after a series of controversial posts about leading Labour Party figures.
Central Banks appear to be particularly popular targets for scammers, with a spokesperson for Malta’s Central Bank telling Times of Malta that they “are aware that a number of National Central Banks in the Eurosystem have lately been affected by deepfake videos”.
Times of Malta has looked into several similar scams in the past, including some using the figures of Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela, and that of actor Russell Crowe.
Verdict
Several manipulated videos being shared on social media overdub real footage with an audio deepfake to deceive viewers into thinking that popular political figures are promoting a fraudulent crypto scheme.
The videos first surfaced in May but have returned to the spotlight in recent days. The videos are being promoted by fake Facebook profiles and use a fake Times of Malta report to appear legitimate.
They point to a website that uses the Central Bank logo and encourages users to submit personal details.
Similar scams have previously been debunked on several occasions.
This claim is therefore false, as the evidence clearly refutes the claim.
The Times of Malta fact-checking service forms part of the Mediterranean Digital Media Observatory (MedDMO) and the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), an independent observatory with hubs across all 27 EU member states that is funded by the EU’s Digital Europe programme. Fact-checks are based on our code of principles.
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