Arab Press Review: Fake Bitcoin Platform Scams Half a Million Egyptians
Half a million Egyptians are victims of Bitcoin scams
Thousands of Egyptians fell victim to scams from a fictitious online platform promoting itself as a Bitcoin investment vehicle, according to a report Thursday by London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
“Hogpool” collected millions of Egyptian pounds from users over a seven-month period, before those responsible for the company shut down the website and disappeared.
The bogus company was set up in August by wire fraud specialists, the report said.
It lured users in by offering them small returns on initial investments, before calling them into “a circle of fraud”. The site was promoted by paid social media influencers.
At least 600,000 Egyptians had subscribed to the platform when it was suddenly shut down.
Several subscribers filed a complaint with Egypt’s attorney general, accusing the fraudulent company of “confiscating their money” and “deceiving their customers”.
Egyptian MP Hisham al-Jahel raised the issue in parliament, calling for an investigation and tighter restrictions on online platforms.
Jordan condemns Smotrich remarks
Jordan’s foreign ministry has condemned “inflammatory statements” by Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.
On Wednesday, Smotrich stated: “The Palestinian village of Huwwara should be wiped out. The state must do it and not private citizens.”
Sinan al-Majali, a spokesman for Jordan’s foreign ministry, said the calls for violence would result in “serious consequences” and were a violation of international humanitarian law, according to state news agency Petra.
He called on Israel to stop targeting Palestinians and take steps to “resolve the conflict on the basis of the two-state solution”.
Last week, Jordan hosted a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials in the Red Sea resort city of Aqaba in an attempt to deescalate growing violence.
Huwwara: A city of olives, gold merchants and stolen lands
Read more ”
At least one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 were injured last weekend in settler attacks on Huwwara and other occupied West Bank towns and villages in the Nablus area. The violence followed a shooting that killed two Israelis in the town of Huwwara.
Smotrich took to Twitter on Sunday as the attacks continued promote a thread that recommended “collective punishment of [a] the terrorist’s family and environment as an effective and necessary tool in asymmetric warfare”.
He also demanded that the Israeli army “hit Palestinian towns, with tanks and helicopters, mercilessly, in a way that would convey that the owner of the house [involved in violence against Israelis] has gone mad”.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Smotrich supported settler violence and “wants to cause another Palestinian Nakba”, using a term describing the massacres and forced expulsions Palestinians suffered at the hands of Zionist militias in 1948, when the new Israeli state was to.
Syrian mother tries to sell children
Lebanon’s security forces have thwarted a Syrian mother’s attempt to sell her daughter for $1,000, according to a report published by Al-Rai newspaper.
The mother and her Lebanese husband tried to sell the child through a middleman, who would receive a commission of $400. The buyer intended to exploit the child, according to the authorities.
Lebanon’s internal security forces announced that the anti-trafficking office had received information about a child being sold to a buyer “with the aim of exploiting her later in prostitution”.
Lebanese police said they were able to lure those involved through an ambush. The mother, her husband and two mediators were arrested.
“They were all arrested for the crime of human trafficking and the girl was handed over to an association,” the internal security force said in a statement.
*Arab press review is a summary of news reports not independently verified as accurate by Middle East Eye.
