The collaboration from foreign entities is deemed to be important in the investigation regarding the fake emails being sent to newsrooms and the creation of spoof websites posing as Maltese media organisations, the police told The Malta Independent.

Scammers have tried to catfish journalists with fake emails. The Malta Independent traced some of these emails back to a website that allows users to send fake emails that appear to originate from real email accounts. In addition, fake websites have been created, posing as the websites of official media houses in Malta. As an example, a fake story on a fake website called netnewsmt.com was making the rounds carrying such fake stories.

The content in most of these cases centred on the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case, with key people such as parte civile lawyer and PN MP Jason Azzopardi, blogger Manuel Delia, and pardoned middleman Melvin Theuma being the target of the fake stories. The suspected mastermind in the journalist's murder, Yorgen Fenech, has said that he has nothing to do with the disinformation campaign.

Other people targeted by the fake emails and websites include Prime Minister Robert Abela and Opposition Leader Bernard Grech.

PN MP Jason Azzopardi has previously written on Facebook that he is informed that, aside from Maltese individuals, someone from Bulgaria is also involved in the creation of these fake news attacks.

This newsroom sent a number of questions to the police, asking for information as to the current stage of the investigation, for any information they can provide, whether they believe foreign individuals are involved in these acts and, if yes, whether foreign authorities are involved in the investigation.

In response, a police spokesperson said: "Investigations regarding these websites were initiated by the police given that the initial assessment indicates that such actions constitute the offence of harassment, amongst others which might result. While the investigations are still ongoing, the collaboration from foreign entities is deemed important."

This shows that the police mainly seem to be treating this as a harassment case. While not confirming whether or not the police believe foreign individuals are involved, saying that the collaboration from foreign entities is 'deemed important' either indicates this, or that the police are utilising foreign experts to help in the investigation locally.