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New advertisements featuring the face and likeness of Martin Lewis – an alleged financial expert in the London area – have been discovered on Instagram promoting potential cryptocurrency scams. These scams discuss a “revolutionary bitcoin home-based opportunity” that can change your life (and the lives of others) forever. One of the other tactics these scammers are utilizing to ensure unsuspecting readers believe their phony ads is by dressing them up to look like newspaper clippings. Some users claim that the ads mirror posts from The Mirror, a popular British news source. However, Lewis has already taken to Twitter to warn everyone that these advertisements are not real, and that he has never given permission for his likeness to be used in the ads. He’s warning everyone to steer clear and avoid getting pulled in.
Lewis is a well-known individual in Britain’s world of finance. Regularly appearing on television, Lewis discusses what investment opportunities are available for everyday citizens. He also talks about how to save money, new government incentives, and which bank accounts offer the best interest. His biggest claim to fame was a website he founded called MoneySavingExpert.com. This site sold in the year 2012 for a record $133 million. Despite a new year, it looks like many scammers still believe using celebrity images to promote their cryptocurrency schemes are the best way to go. One of the most prominent cases of using a celebrity’s face to scam people out of their digital assets involved one which occurred in late 2018. Hackers were allegedly using the likeness of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk as a means of promoting a phony digital currency donation program.
These scammers acted as though they, themselves, were Elon Musk, and went around asking people to donate bitcoin to his various causes. The real Musk eventually came out and told everyone that these messages were not coming from him, though at that point, many donations had sadly been garnered illicitly. In addition, last September saw Dutch creator of the famed reality television program “Big Brother” John De Mol seeking legal advice regarding Facebook’s consistent publishing of fake cryptocurrency ads utilizing his likeness. Despite years of trying to work with Facebook to get the ads removed, the social media conglomerate did little to nothing to adhere to his requests.
He ultimately sought out the assistance of lawyers to bring his situation to court in Amsterdam. The ruling was a rather lackluster one: Facebook and Del Mol must work out the issue themselves. While the ads have been removed at the time of writing, many Dutch residents have lost out, as the ads led to more than $2 million in donations or investments that have not yet been returned.
Article Produced By
Nick Marinoff
