Alarm sounded over TikTok impersonators scamming Maltese victims

A well-known financial coach is raising the alarm over fake online profiles impersonating him, saying the inaction from social media platforms has led to people being scammed out of up to €1,000.

Lecturer and financial coach Patrick DeBattista, who runs the popular social media account financewithpatrick, said the problem has become so widespread that he can no longer keep track of the fake accounts impersonating him.

“I get around five people a day now asking if a profile is actually me. It is becoming a major waste of time,” DeBattista said.

The issue began over a year and a half ago, after he gained 5,000 followers on TikTok. DeBattista said that fake accounts started appearing using variations of his official handle (verified or authenticated username). His real username is financewithpatrick, but others began emerging, such as ‘finance_ _4 _u’ and ‘finance_4_u1’.

Each fake profile uses his photo and often republishes some of his videos, making them appear almost identical to his own accounts.

“They make the fake profiles, would use bots to follow my followers and then usually they would ask something on the lines of if they dabbled in crypto.”

He said the scammers typically open with a question about cryptocurrency, then move the conversation to Telegram, an app known for its anonymity features, before asking for money transfers under the promise of significant returns.

“I never message first, that’s one of the giveaways,” he said.

Screenshot of interactions with the scammers. Photo: Patrick Debattista

The scams usually start small but progressively grow. Victims are asked to invest €50, then €500, and in one case up to €1,000, according to DeBattista.

“They would ask for more and more and more. But then, when you tell them that you want to pull out, they say you can’t.”

At that stage, victims often find DeBattista’s real accounts and contact him directly and on other social media platforms. All he can do, he said, is urge them to report the fake profiles to TikTok.

“I contacted local authorities, but I heard nothing,” he said. “And contacting TikTok is like contacting the void.”

While individual fake profiles do get removed, he said, new ones quickly appear in their place.

DeBattista warned that the persistent scams are eroding public trust in investing, something he has long promoted through his platform. He also expressed apprehension about the broader state of financial literacy in Malta, describing it as “deeply concerning”.

Screenshot of Yanis Varoufakis speaking about the deepfake videos of him. Photo: X

Deepfake videos of high-profile individuals are being used to impersonate them on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Former Greek minister and renowned economist Yanis Varoufakis recently highlighted the problem of fake AI-generated videos impersonating him.

“Nothing I can do about it. YouTube refuses to take these deep fakes down. And even if they do, they spring up faster than I can shut them down,” Varoufakis posted on X.

According to the Malta Financial Services Authority, reports of investment frauds surged by over 50% in 2024 alone, with scammers using fake profiles on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to lure locals into bogus crypto schemes promising 20-50% returns. 

Maltese police recorded hundreds of complaints in 2025, and hundreds of thousands of euros are believed to have been lost, yet platform inaction and cross-border challenges mean new fakes emerge daily.