La Presse-branded Bitcoin scam promoted with Facebook ads

Multinational Tesla decided to help those in need and started its own Bitcoin Bank project by investing $1.5 billion in BitcoinCan we read in the fake article. However, there is no such project.

According to a fake article, Bitcoin Bank Allows you to take advantage of [plusieurs] Cryptocurrencies, even in bear markets. Uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically manage short and long term sales, so you can make money around the clock, even while you sleep, continued.

The director of media relations for the Autorité des marchés Financiers (AMF), Sylvain Tyberg, warns against tempting offers that guarantee a return. Anything that talks about guaranteed profits, anything that talks about returns that sound too good to be true, is immediately red flags., He said.

The user is invited to provide personal information to register for a cryptocurrency exchange using the fake article: first and last name, email address and phone number. This leads to a platform where you have to make an initial deposit, Usually $320. The fake article claims that a personal account manager Then he communicates with investors by phone.

The reader who signed up before reporting this ad to decoders It ended up being blacklisted by C4U Capital (A new window) AMF sites and companies that conduct high-risk illegal activities in Quebec.

When a company finds itself on such a list, it means that we, as a regulator, have very compelling reasons to believe that this company is fraudulent. Sometimes it may be calls we’ve received, so we can base this decision on very specific elements. Sometimes this is information we have received from other regulators. These are problematic organizations that people should not deal with, says Sylvain Tyberg.

call him decodersAnd Journalism He is said to be aware of this deception. We are aware of this use of our logo and [de notre] Visual signature for fraudulent purposes. Our legal team is ready to analyze and correct the situationVice President of Communications and Philanthropy, Florence Torbolt-Desroches, reacts.

Facebook scams promoted

We documented more than 40 of these fraudulent Facebook ads that led to a fake article website on Thursday and Friday. Many of them were deleted even before we contacted the social network about them, but others were deleted only after they were reported.

We’ve also included at least three other ads on Facebook promoting nearly identical fake articles in French, yet they’re shown on a website that looks in every way at the British tabloid site. The Daily Mirror.

Another example of a scam being run on Facebook.

Photo: screenshot

According to Facebook’s policies, ads should not Promote products, services, schemes, or offers associated with deceptive or dishonest practices, including fraud, or the theft of money or information from people. They can’t either Promote cryptocurrency exchanges or related products and services without prior written permission.

We don’t allow ads that mislead people with images of public figures, Alex Kucharski, director of Canadian communications for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, told us. We’ve dedicated significant resources to combating this type of ads by improving automated systems that remove ads before people see them, and we’re investing in new tools to make them more effective.

Meta also claimed that it is currently testing a new system for reporting deceptive or fraudulent ads in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and that it will reach other countries soon. In addition, the company encourages its users to report any advertisement that violates its policies.

Meta did not respond to our specific questions about why some ads were allowed on the platform, even though they violated more than one rule.

Cryptocurrency scams are getting more and more frequent

Cryptocurrency is the preferred bait for scammers. According to a press release from RCMP (A new window)The number of cryptocurrency fraud incidents increased by 400% from 2017 to 2020. Canadians reportedly lost more than $70 million in cryptocurrency fraud in 2021, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center.

Cryptocurrency fraud incidents increased by 400% from 2017 to 2020.

Photo: Getty Images / Edward Smith

Over the course of two years, the pandemic has also created a favorable environment for everything related to independent investing, including cryptocurrency, explains Sylvain Theberg.

People are at home, people are trapped. Develop a reaction: “Why not try it? ”Because a friend told them so or because they saw an ad., supports the Director of Media Relations at the Arab Monetary Fund.

In December, CBC reported (A new window) Quebecer Harpreet Sahota has lost more than $102,000 by signing up for a cryptocurrency exchange promoted on Facebook. After her initial investment of $300 quickly inflated, the alleged company representatives behind the phone scam convinced her to deposit tens of thousands of dollars into her account. Mrs. Shota still hasn’t seen her money.