AI-Generated Scams: How Fraudsters Use Fake Celebrity Articles and Paid Facebook Ads to Promote Crypto Investment Schemes
A writer explains that they have been falsely represented as conducting interviews with famous people, such as Zoe Ball, Jeremy Clarkson, and Chris Tarrant, about making large sums of money through crypto currency investments.
The interviews and articles, which appeared on Facebook in a BBC template with the writer's byline, were actually AI-generated scams.
The famous individuals and the writer themselves did not participate in these fake stories or endorse crypto investments.
A senior consultant at cybersecurity firm Penn Test Partners, Tony Gee, explained that scam posts on Facebook promoting fake investment schemes are likely paid-for ads.
He identified this by the unique value in the URL that Facebook adds to track outbound clicks.
Meta, Facebook's owner, confirmed that they don't allow fraudulent activity on their platforms and have removed the identified ads.
Scammers place fake ads on Facebook by using tools that quickly redirect users to harmful pages after the initial click.
These redirections bypass Facebook's automated detection systems, allowing the scams to go undetected initially.
The famous individuals and the writer themselves did not participate in these fake stories or endorse crypto investments.
A senior consultant at cybersecurity firm Penn Test Partners, Tony Gee, explained that scam posts on Facebook promoting fake investment schemes are likely paid-for ads.
He identified this by the unique value in the URL that Facebook adds to track outbound clicks.
Meta, Facebook's owner, confirmed that they don't allow fraudulent activity on their platforms and have removed the identified ads.
Scammers place fake ads on Facebook by using tools that quickly redirect users to harmful pages after the initial click.
These redirections bypass Facebook's automated detection systems, allowing the scams to go undetected initially.