Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has warned people not to fall for a suspected scam after his image and fake quotes were again used in bogus online adverts to lure people to a suspicious cryptocurrency trading platform. Leung denied endorsing the cryptocurrency platform Bitradar or making any comments about it. The advert included made-up quotes from an interview that never took place. “I have never made the remarks, or bought anything through Bitradar. I will never buy through it either,” Leung wrote in a social media post on Friday. “It looks like a scam, please do not fall prey to it.” Hong Kong’s CY Leung takes on Google over online scams with his image The fake advert, which appeared on many websites and social media platforms, said Leung attended an interview with a local broadcaster, where he revealed his “secrets to becoming a millionaire within four months”. The made-up report suggested Leung had promoted a cryptocurrency trading platform in the show, with a few quotes by him included. Among the fake quotes was: “You might have heard about this new cryptocurrency trading platform called Bitradar, it helped many common people in Hong Kong, mainland China and North America to become wealthy overnight, you may find it suspicious, because it does sound unbelievable.” This is not the first time Leung’s image has been used to promote suspicious financial trading platforms, with previous ones following the same format as the latest version. Last December, the former chief executive lodged a complaint in person with Google at the tech giant’s office in Causeway Bay, accusing it of “conspiring with criminal syndicates” and advertising financial scams featuring him and other officials. He said the company subsequently vowed to remove the ads in question. Hong Kong lawmakers lack ‘fighting spirit’ to take on overseas critics: CY Leung A number of officials, including Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, have been featured in shady online advertising involving the unauthorised use of their image to boost the credibility of cryptocurrency investments. Both Lee and Chan earlier reported their cases to police.
Ex-Hong Kong leader CY Leung in scam warning after bogus investment adverts appear on websites, social media platforms
