decrypt.co
Celebrities continue to be the chosen target of crypto scammers. This time, British TV presenter Rylan Clark-Neal is the one reportedly making phoney endorsements for a get-rich-quick investment in Bitcoin.
The former Celebrity Big Brother and X-Factor star put out a warning on Saturday about a bogus interview doing the rounds.
Writing on Twitter, Clark-Neal said a “fake interview” purportedly from British tabloid The Daily Mirror was reportedly circulating on Facebook, claiming the celebrity “made millions from bitcoin.”
There’s a fake interview going around on Facebook and social platforms claiming to be the daily mirror which it isn’t saying how I’ve made millions from bitcoin. Don’t fall for it 👍🏼
— Rylan Clark-Neal (@Rylan) April 18, 2020
“Don’t fall for it,” he said.
Fake celebrity endorsements are nothing new in the world of crypto scams. Earlier this month, cyber-criminals put out an advert falsely using the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to endorse “cryptocurrency auto-trading program Bitcoin Evolution” that could turn “anyone into a millionaire within three to four months.”
And the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Elon Musk and Bill Gates have all been selected by crooks to make phoney endorsements online in a bid to steal from gullible would-be investors.
Even Kate Winslett’s name was falsely used in a dodgy Bitcoin-related project.
More worrying is when real news outlets fall for the scams themselves and publish such adverts. It’s no wonder the cyber-criminals are so effective.
Last year the UK financial watchdog put out a warning after calculating people had lost £27 million ($34 million) from dealing on fraudulent trading platforms.
We probably don’t need to warn the readers of Decrypt, but if something looks too good to be true—it’s probably because it is.