The founder of MoneySavingExpert.com – Martin Lewis – has taken to both Twitter and TV to warn viewers about a series of Internet scams that have used his name to scam victims.
In an angry video, Lewis blasted scammers who have been using his identity to falsely claim he had invested £500,000 into a money-making-system, in order to lure unsuspecting victims to [what turns out to be] scammy binary options trading websites.
It’s a scam we have discussed before in our blog post here. Martin Lewis is one of a number of celebrities who have had their identities stolen to promote these types of get-rich-quick scams, including Richard Branson and Bill Gates.
These scams lead to fake “news” websites and get-rich-quick scams websites that claim to have a system that can make you rich, just by trading with binary options – where you are asked to deposit large sums of money to start trading. Despite the outlandish claims made by these sites, most people are likely to lose money.
Sponsored Content. Continued below...
According to Martin Lewis, he had been contacted by one angry man who claimed to have lost £19,000 on the scheme. The man had believed fake claims made by online adverts and believed the get-rich-quick site belonged to Martin Lewis – such adverts had most likely appeared through Facebook’s Sponsored Ads (we’ve discussed how scams are constantly popping up on Facebook Sponsored Ads here.)
In a warning to viewers, Lewis said –
There are a series of sites using my face and name, including images from this show, on Facebook to advertise a range of things I have nothing to do with. The biggest one is called Cloud Trader, which is an unregistered binary trading firm that the FCA has warned against. The advert says I have invested half a million and that it is an easy way to make money. This is a lie. I have not invested, it is not based in the UK, it is a scam.
It’s rife across the internet. I do not do Facebook adverts. if you see my face on these adverts it is a lie
GetRichQuickScam.com warns about Cloud Trader in a post here.
Online scammers often illegally use the name of celebrities to promote products. This is also common in the dietary supplement scam niche, where scammers used the names of Oprah, Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz to promote spammy Acai Berry based supplements, which ultimately led to a series of lawsuits against the spammers.
Remember, these fake adverts often appear on Facebook and they cannot be trusted. Just because an online advert says a celebrity has endorsed, invested (or created) a system or product, it could be a scam, and if it’s claiming you can get rich quickly, it most probably is a scam! So don’t fall for them!