Facebook Celebrity Scam Ads
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These are incredibly common on Facebook and often appear in the main feed or in adverts in the side panels:
The ads are very consistent. They tend to use the same idea of shock and amazement even though they make no real sense. Their purpose is to make you click before you think. The photo behind the girl shows a picture of someone obviously male with a jacket over their head being marched somewhere by police who are not obviously not within the UK.
Just to date we have seen celebrity scams using: Bradley Walsh, Jeremy Clarkson, Emma Raducanu, Keir Starmer, Kenneth Branagh, Kate Winslet, Alex Jones, Rishi Sunak, Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Hammond, Keir Starmer and Stacey Solomon just to name a few.
As we can see from the above they often use the same script repeatedly, probably indicating that the advertisers are part of an affiliate network run by a network of scammers that provide material to their affiliates who then proceed to post and advertise these articles all across the internet in the hope of bagging a huge fee for providing the scammers with a victim that they successfully defraud. These rewards can be as much as $1000 USD and so competition is very fierce and so many fake articles and fake reviews appear on sites all across the web that they actually convince Google and other search engines that these scheme hold some sort of merit.
What Do The Articles Claim?
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Very often the current batch follow exactly the same format. The idea is that the celebrity is being interviewed on a popular national television show when there is some sort of argument regarding the fact that the celebrity in question makes money from means other than their celebrity status and income they make from their released material or media appearances.
If we look at the example above where they are using Richard Hammond, we can see that the text below the photo reads:
During the live broadcast of This Morning, a serious scandal erupted between host Ben Shephard and guest Guest. In the midst of a heated discussion, Ben Shephard questioned the truthfulness of Hammond’s statements, accusing him of lying in front of thousands of live viewers. Following the incident, the channel's management decided to remove the interview from the broadcast and refused to comment on the situation or on the behavior of anchor Ben Shephard.
They then go on to imply a specific argument occurred between guest and host along the lines of:
Host: "You practically don't work - I will never believe that you live on one salary! A year ago you were driving an old car and living in a small apartment. How did you manage to change all that?"
Guest: "Just a year ago? To me, that feels like a lifetime ago! Now, I live in a country cottage, bought an apartment to rent out just a month ago, and got rid of my old car long ago—now I drive a new Land Rover. But I work hard, so don’t call me lazy. I understand your surprise, but I suggest you start living differently."
Host: "It's easy for you to give out advice! And I have to suffer every day at work to feed my family. And you know what? I'm always short of money anyway".
Guest: "What's the problem with starting to think differently? Just accept the idea that work is not the only way to make money. When someone tells me that I'm just lucky - I laugh in their face because today there's everything on the Internet that makes it easy to get rich without getting off the couch".
Host: "So you're saying that everyone can make money like you? I don't believe what you're saying..."
After this statement, the Guest became furious. He started to argue with Host while showing something on his phone.
Guest: "You don't believe me? Give me £250 and I'll make a million with it in 3-4 months! It all depends on you - whether you want it or not".
Host: "All the viewers saw that you showed me the website where you make money, the camera captured the link! Why would you do that on live TV? This could harm the country’s economy."
Guest: "Don't make me a monster, I want to do my best and open people's eyes to the truth. Why would anyone be bothered by the extra income?"
Host: "Think about it - if everyone starts getting rich, who would work in hospitals, schools, and factories? What would you say to that?"
Guest: "I think people should have a choice in how they earn their money - by working hard all their lives or by spending an hour a day sitting in bed. If you don't believe what I say, see for yourself. Give me your phone and I will register you on the QuantumAI platform. Let the live viewers understand that this method truly works and passive income is available to anyone".
As you can see, it is utter nonsense, suggesting that people with extremely established careers and families were living in a small apartment a few months earlier makes no sense and has no root in truth. It is just to associate an idea of quick and easy wealth with people who you might encounter in everyday culture.
The other popular premise is that the aforementioned interview was banned by the Bank of England before it could be disseminated and
Who Writes the Articles?
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Ostensibly they are written by some sort of journalist who then goes on to test the system on behalf of their readership. The test usually proceeds along these lines:
If you are fortunate enough to read this article, please be aware that it may soon be deleted, as it happened with this telecast. So, save yourself the official link to QuantumAI as soon as possible, which was provided by Richard Hammond himself to our editorial team.
One of our news editors decided to try out this platform and wrote a detailed report describing his experience.
Martin Walsh - News Editor
Day 1:
“My first impression was that it would not be that simple. Despite that, I really wanted to check it out. I had to use my credit card because I didn't have enough money to make the minimum deposit at the time of the investigation. I successfully invested £250 and waited to see what would happen.
When nothing happened, I thought I'd been duped. However, the algorithm started working after a few minutes. I was overjoyed, but then I saw the stats - my first trade was unprofitable by £22!
In the first couple minutes of working with this platform, there were some losses. But the next deal, as well as 4 after it, helped me gain more money. In a few minutes, my balance increased from £250 to £272!".
Day 2:
“The first thing I did in the morning was check my balance, which showed £467! In just one day, my balance doubled. Despite wanting to withdraw my profit, I decided to wait a week”.
Day 7:
“I haven’t checked my balance on the QuantumAI platform all week. It was kind of difficult because I was afraid that my money was no longer there.
As soon as I got back to my office, I saw that almost 85% of all deals were profitable. There were another 15% that didn't work. Despite that, it paid off. I now have £4230 on my account! I withdrew £4000 to buy a present for my wife. It all happened very fast, within an hour, and the rest of the money kept bringing me income.”
I have attached the bank statement:
1621A101
Martin Walsh1 Television Centre101 Wood Lane W12 7FA
National classification
code
93-14-13Account name
Martin WalshPhone
+916742548050Account number
17845-21
IBAN: IE67 ABKI 9313 1418 4910 81
Date16.09.202416.09.202427.07.2024
TransactionQuantumAI
Debit4,000
Credit-
Balance9856
Thank you for choosing our bank!
Official statement from Barclays Bank
“There's nothing better than QuantumAI! If I hadn't withdrawn my profits, £250 would have turned into a million in 11 weeks."
So as you can see they assume the role of an imaginary user of this phantom nonsense and continue to report upon something that supposedly would have made them 1,000,000 USD in 11 weeks had they not withdrawn their money, so why they would withdraw it remains an odd question, as presumably after the following 11 weeks they would be commander-in-chief of planet Earth, and completing the article wouldn't have been of such great importance.
Why Do People Believe This?
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Well, firstly it follows a very similar tactic every time, and once you have seen it pop-up on Facebook, X.com, Instagram and everything else, you start to assume it must be real. They also use a very social media-like set-up for the pages, with a lot of testimonials at the bottom, something like this:
So people start to believe it out of association and familiarity.
What Can I Do?
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Boycott Meta, Alphabet and X.com until they learn to change their behaviour. There is no other way to communicate with these levels of greed.
They advertise so many scams that the second bite scammers advertise with them too:
These people take a percentage and very often an upfront fee for recovering money your bank owes you fro their insurance anyway and that you can recover easily. They have no legal or official power to put pressure on anyone to make a recovery anyway and are just trying to rip you off again as they know you are vulnerable.