Finance Minister Roy McTaggart has been targeted in an advertisement scam being circulated on social media.
The fake ad, which is similar to the series of sponsored ads making the rounds on Facebook featuring Premier Alden McLaughlin, has been flagged by the minister.
McTaggart responded to the ad, posting that he has reported the scam to Facebook.
This week, the Financial Crime Unit said it started an investigation into a series of advertisements and articles featuring fake interviews with McLaughlin and details on the Cayman Islands.
The police statement said the ads and articles are part of an ongoing scam and that officers had reached out to the website where the posts have been made.
So far, police said, they had been able to remove at least one of the articles featuring the premier.
Last week, the Cayman Compass highlighted the scam, which has been circulating on Facebook.
The Office of the Premier had said it reported the fictitious ads to Facebook and had one of those removed as well.
“It appears that an overseas scammer has been using the name and pictures of the Premier, along with mentions of other prominent persons within the Cayman Islands, to increase the plausibility of the scam,” the police said in the statement.
The false news promotions, police added, have also been done in a similar way to other countries.
The RCIPS said the pictures of the premier have been used to attract people to sign up for false bitcoin investment opportunities in a bid by scammers to capture credit-card details.
“These false investment opportunities, which seem to be operating under the name ‘Bitcoin Era Promotions’, are scams and the Honourable Premier Mr. Alden McLaughlin is not involved in these promotions in any way,” the police statement said.
Anyone who may have encountered these ads and articles, or who is unsure about the legitimacy of any online investments, is being asked to forward the information to the RCIPS Financial Crime Unit at [email protected].
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