In the shadowy corners of the internet, digital impersonators have struck again.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) recently identified a copycat website meticulously designed to mimic its digital publication, complete with the familiar interface and visual aesthetics that readers trust.
The fraudulent site‘s creators invested considerable effort in replicating SCMP’s look and feel, blurring the line between legitimate news and deception.
The fake site published fabricated content, including a particularly egregious article dated April 17 that falsely claimed Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing endorsed cryptocurrency auto-trading platforms.
This fabrication featured doctored screenshots and invented claims about Li making millions during a TVB interview that never actually occurred.
A simple check of the official SCMP website and TVB broadcasts confirmed the story’s fictional nature.
Taking swift action, SCMP filed a police report regarding the impersonation, warning readers to exercise vigilance and access news exclusively through its official website.
“This kind of digital mimicry represents a particularly insidious form of fraud,” a spokesperson noted as they confirmed the escalation to authorities.
The scam’s tendrils extended beyond SCMP, falsely implicating broadcaster TVB, which independently filed its own police report.
The impersonators created content dated as far ahead as April 17, 2025, suggesting a deliberate attempt to confuse readers with futuristic timestamps.
Hong Kong Police have requested internet service providers remove the fraudulent pages and assigned the case to their cybersecurity and technology crime bureau.
The incident highlights a growing trend in which scammers exploit established media outlets and prominent figures to lend credibility to their schemes.
These sophisticated tactics, which sometimes include deepfakes of celebrities like Elon Musk supposedly endorsing platforms such as “Quantum AI,” create a veneer of legitimacy that can fool even cautious readers.
Experts recommend implementing hardware wallet security to protect digital assets from such deceptive schemes.
Financial experts have cautioned investors to practice robust digital hygiene when navigating cryptocurrency opportunities online.
Alongside “pig-butchering” scams that combine fake cryptocurrency apps with relationship-building tactics, these deceptions form part of a digital landscape requiring increasing vigilance.
Official entities including SCMP, TVB, the Hong Kong police, and the Securities and Futures Commission continue to issue warnings, urging the public to verify information sources and approach unfamiliar links with healthy skepticism.
