WARNING: Bank issues alert over fake ads designed to steal money

A warning has been issued about false articles and fake adverts online which are designed to steal money, an Irish bank has warned. 

An increasing number of false articles appearing online designed to defraud consumers through fake financial products, investments or cryptocurrency schemes has led to the warning from Bank of Ireland.

People have been warned not to click on these adverts as they are "designed to steal people's money", Bank of Ireland warned. 

The articles appear like news articles from genuine media outlets, but are false advertisements that fraudsters are paying for online, the bank warns.

The advertisements feature fabricated news stories with claims about specific cryptocurrency trading platforms or designed to entice readers to websites where they can then be defrauded. The false articles/advertisements generally feature a well-known personality or celebrity, combined with a controversial headline to grab attention.

Nicola Sadlier, Head of Fraud at Bank of Ireland said: “Fraudulent advertisements are increasingly appearing online and on social media channels and are designed to steal consumers’ money through fake financial products, investments or cryptocurrency schemes. We see more and more fraud attacks starting from social media and tech platforms – these fake ads should be caught before they are published online, but many are not.

“Unfortunately, supervision of this is very inconsistent, at times it’s like a game of whack-a-mole trying to report the different scams to the social media companies and get them taken down. It’s unacceptable to see fraudsters operating so openly on social media. No company should be generating advertising revenue from criminals - social platforms really need to step up and crack down.

“Our advice to consumers is: Don’t click on these adverts, ignore them completely, and if an investment sounds too good to be true, it’s probably fraud,” Ms Sadlier said.