The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) has contacted Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to remove fake advertisements promoting “Jensen Huang’s stock investment chat group.”
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), the Taiwanese-American CEO of Nvidia Corp, was in the media spotlight during a visit to Taiwan last week.
Citing accelerating artificial intelligence applications, Nvidia on May 24 said that its sales this quarter would reach US$11 billion, soaring 64 percent from a year earlier and beating a market estimate of US$7.2 billion, which caught many market analysts off guard.
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
The GPU designer posted more than US$2 billion in net profit and US$7 billion in sales for the first quarter, both topping Wall Street expectations.
CIB officials said the Facebook advertisement was clearly fabricated, but it was still circulated widely and has led to complaints that the social media platform was doing nothing to curb the spread of fake advertisements.
“Scammers are good at following the latest trends,” a CIB official said on condition of anonymity.
The CIB said the advertisement was titled “Jensen Huang, Taiwan’s native-born kid,” and was accompanied by authentic information about Nvidia’s second-quarter forecast boosting the stocks of AI firms.
However, the next part of the advertisement was made up by the scammers, which said: “We thank people for their support. Now, with financial experts, we have set up a stock market investment chat group to share updates on daily stock movements and tips on when to buy and sell. We hope everyone can profit on the stock market,” the CIB said.
CIB officials said some people might have difficulty discerning the fraudulent advertisement from genuine promotions.
“We are working to prevent people falling for such scams. We have set up an anti-fraud unit to help people distinguish real news from fake news,” the CIB official said.
The bureau said it would treat the posting of fake advertisements as a criminal offense.
It urged people to contact the CIB’s “165” anti-fraud hotline to report bogus investment news and scams.
Additional reporting by CNA
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit