Celebrity-bait
Also called: bitcoin fraud or celebbait
Celebrity-bait is a form of deception in which names and pictures of famous people are misused in online advertisements. The purpose of the fraudulent ads is generally to get people to sign up for a rogue service or otherwise take money under false pretenses.
In celebrity-bait, scammers use the authority of famous stars to fool people. Without permission, names and photos are used to promote products and services. Often invented success stories are used to conjure up expectations, such as a return on investment, that are never realized. The investment does not exist or turns out not to be cashable or worth nothing.
Known victims of bitcoin fraud
Victims of celebritybait are both the people who are fooled by the fake advertisements, losing money, and the famous people, whose good name is abused and damaged.
A well-known example of celebrity-bait are the advertisements on Facebook and in unsolicited e-mails, among others, that call for investing in bitcoins and other virtual currencies. A large number of Dutch celebrities, including John de Mol, Alexander Klöpping, Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, Waylon, Duncan Laurence and Jort Kelder, have fallen victim to this. Despite legal pressure, including lawsuits, social networks such as Facebook are taking great pains to ban ads from bitcoin fraudsters or even remove them after posting.
How does celebrity-bait work?
To persuade gullible readers to click through, a certain tension is built up in the advertisements. For example, the famous person reveals his secret about a successful investment. In celebrity-bait like bitcoin fraud, the desire to profit from someone's minute investment tips wins out over the ability to judge whether an ad and offer is authentic. To make the ads more convincing, they are often given the names and logos of news websites, newspapers and television programs. The use of fictitious press releases and fake news sites can also be referred to as a form of fake news.
The phenomenon also occurs abroad. Generally, the scammers use local celebrities who are known to own a lot of money and are likely to make regular investments and investments with them. In addition, the use of popular entertainers, such as singers and comedians, also proves lucrative. Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Richard Branson are also being used internationally in fake advertisements.
The scammers behind bitcoin fraud often use middlemen and companies that actually set up these campaigns to place their bitcoin ads. Many criminals who enrich themselves with celebrity-bait are reportedly from Eastern European countries.
