The Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has issued a warning to the public about a scam being advertised in the country.

According to Razim Buksh, the director of the FIU, the cryptocurrency scam running in the country is asking potential investors to inject funds into Bitcoin. These schemes are advertised on Viber along with the logo and official of a government agency.

“These ads are false,” said FIU Director Razim Buksh. “The fake ads claim that people in Fiji can buy bitcoin, forex and binary trade using their mobile money wallets or bank transfers. The ad provides two phone numbers for further enquiries. A local number and an overseas number.”

Razim said there is no Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) that is legally approved to operate in the country, and the only legal tender in the country is the fiat note issued by the Reserve Bank of Fiji. Such attempt to transact outside of approved brokers will be considered a violation of the Exchange Control Law.

The FIU advised all residents to be on the lookout for investment offers and provided a list of red flag things to be aware of before pitching tents with any acclaimed investment service provider.

As noted in the Fiji Times report, red flags include, but are not limited to, “Using existing marketing material from government agencies or reputable entities. These are usually fake; you are being asked to deposit funds into different accounts at name of an individual rather than a reputable company or financial institution; grammatical errors often represent the work of non-professionals.”

Scams are common in the world of cryptocurrencies, and investors have continued to lose billions of dollars annually due to these fraudulent investment offers. Scams are not unique to any particular country, and authorities have been known to always issue warnings like this one sent by the Fijian regulator.

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