Facebook promoted completely false Rebel Wilson Bitcoin story online
SOCIAL media giant Facebook promoted a fake news story claiming Rebel Wilson was endorsing bitcoin trading software. This is how the scam unfolded.
Don't miss out on the headlines from Facebook. Followed categories will be added to My News.
FACEBOOK took money from scammers to promote a fake news story that claimed Rebel Wilson and an Australian couple were making a motza from bitcoin trading software.
The same made-up quotes attributed to the actress in the fake news story promoted by Facebook were previously pinned on the UK’s leading personal finance expert, Martin Lewis.
He has responded by launching legal action against the social media titan in the UK’s High Court after some of his fans were duped into losing tens of thousands of dollars.
Facebook’s role in spreading scams and hoaxes is under increasing scrutiny around the world, including in Australia, where an official inquiry is examining whether “digital platforms” have “changed the quality or choice of media content supplied to consumers”.
The fake news story about Wilson said the actress had invested $1.2 million into Bitcoin Code and had made more money from cryptocurrency than her roles in the Pitch Perfect movies.
“When I heard the idea, I just knew I had to be a part of it,” the quotes falsely attributed to Wilson say in a story mocked up to look as if it is in The Australian. “We’re going to change the lives of thousands of Australian peeps’ forever. I couldn’t be more excited.”
A fictitious Wilson tweet in the fake story says she is “looking forward to helping as many Australians looking to create more financial freedom”.
The story then introduces “parents of 2, Justin and Bec Pottinger from Grenfell NSW”. Mr Pottinger “was lucky enough to be invited to beta test the program in May this year after stumbling across an advert on Facebook”.
“At first, I thought this was a joke,” the fictitious Mr Pottinger says. “I was so skeptical (sic) that I’d even receive the money that I didn’t even mention it to Bec.”
The story says he opened an account and deposited the minimum $350, set the auto-trade amount to the recommended $50: “I left it active for about an hour and went and watched TV. I … turned $350 into $2034.52 in the space of an hour!”
The couple whose identities were stolen to create the fictional Pottingers of Grenfell are also demanding action from Facebook.
“It’s just bloody crazy,” said Mark Thurlow, of South Melbourne. “I’m not going to tolerate my kids being posted all around the world, putting false names on there. It’s just wrong.”
Mr Thurlow, who owns a metal recycling business, and his wife Kelly have referred the fraud to their lawyers.
“We want a remedy so it doesn’t happen to other people and other children,” Mr Thurlow said. Their picture was lifted from a legitimate article on the Domain real estate site.
Martin Lewis, founder of Britain’s hugely successful Money Saving Expert site, said he was aware of people losing more than $35,000 after being duped into believing he recommended Bitcoin Code, which has attracted more than 60,000 likes on Facebook.
In April, Lewis launched a suit to force Facebook to introduce settings that would notify well-known people when their image was used in an advertisement and require their approval that the post was legitimate.
He reported about 50 fake posts to Facebook. It has since admitted there were “thousands”. Facebook chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer told a UK parliament committee the company had found dozens of fraudulent advertisers targeting Lewis and had “taken them off the platform”.
After News Corp Australia brought the fake Wilson news story to Facebook’s attention this week, the promoted post was removed for being “misleading”.
Wilson, who recently won a major defamation action, did not respond to requests for comment.
Wilson has used Twitter to say anything she endorses on social media will be tagged with #ad.
“Anything else on the internet using my name or image is probably a scam,” she wrote. “Please be aware. Currently there is nothing I am promoting in the weight loss or financial fields.”
The Australian’s editor-in-chief Paul Whittaker said he was extremely concerned that an unknown party had “hijacked our brand and used it to try to lend credibility to ‘fake news’ of the sort that is so often perpetuated on Facebook.
“Worse still, Facebook has taken money from the fake news scammers to push this fake news higher into Facebook users’ feeds,” Mr Whittaker said. “This story is fraudulent and has no connection whatsoever to The Australian. We will be writing to Facebook to lodge a complaint and seek their assistance to identify the culprits.”
Originally published as Facebook promoted completely false Rebel Wilson Bitcoin story online
Facebook would hurt itself by news ban: ACCC
Facebook would hurt its users and ‘weaken’ its social networks by banning all news in Australia, the head of the competition watchdog warns, when it could be saving media outlets.
Kim K dumps Facebook for ‘spreading of hate’
Kim Kardashian has frozen her Insta and Facebook accounts, in protest over the social media giant’s response to misinformation and hate.