Peter Lim, a former stockbroker who owns Spain’s Valencia football club, has warned members of the public not to fall victim to false claims that he has endorsed investments, reports local newspaper Straits Times.
The son of a fishmonger, Lim’s net worth is currently estimated at just over $2.1bn (£1.6bn, €1.8bn), according to Forbes Magazine.
Facebook and cryptocurrency
One scam involved several Facebook accounts that were supposed to be Lim’s official accounts.
However, a spokesperson representing Lim said that Forbes’ 13th richest person in Singapore and the 973rd richest person in the world does not have any social media accounts.
At least one person has been duped into travelling to meet Lim at an overseas meeting.
Another fraud claimed that Lim endorsed investments in cryptocurrency, which the spokesperson said he does not.
“Mr Lim has not endorsed such investments,” the spokesperson said. “Mr Lim is concerned that unsuspecting members of the public may be misled by all these false claims and suffer personal losses.
“Members of the public are strongly advised to protect themselves against these false and misleading claims to avoid becoming potential victims of such scams. Netizens should also refrain from circulating and reposting these false claims.”
The Singapore tycoon also lodged a police complaint last year after he was linked with a get-rich-quick scheme based on binary options, which are prone to fraud and banned by regulators in many jurisdictions as a form of gambling.
Liars and cheats
Lim’s announcement follows a similar move by the UK’s Martin Lewis, who founded website MoneySavingExpert.com.
In a YouTube video in September, Lewis blasted dodgy companies and scammers who are “trying to leach off” his and his website’s hard-earned reputation.
Like Lim, binary options was one of the scams using Lewis’s image and purported endorsement.
Lewis said: “It is a con, it is a scam. It is about binary trading, it is a brilliant way to lose money, do not touch it, do not sniff it, do not smell it, do not go near it. It has nothing to do with me.”
