A disturbing image of a bloodied Anthony Albanese is among a series of fake images of high-profile figures and celebrities being used in a sophisticated online clickbait scam.
Millions of people around the world have been exposed to similar fraudulent ads featuring the likes of the Australian Prime Minister and celebrities such as Richard Branson and Russell Brand.
The image of Mr Albanese shows open wounds on his face accompanied by the caption: “We now know the rumors are true.”
Similar scams involving Virgin founder Richard Branson and former comedian Russell Brand include the tantalizing caption: “Is this the end of your career?”
Fraudulent ads showing doctored photographs of Albanese were linked to a fake Nine News article, reported The age.
The headline read: “A new project called Quantum Ai has been launched, offering all Australians the chance to earn an impressive AU$25,000 a month, starting with just $400!”
Victims who clicked on the article were then encouraged to provide personal details to sign up for the fake investment project.
Sergeant Alexander Kazagrandi, from the Australian Federal Police’s Joint Cybercrime Coordination Centre, said once Australians registered their emails or phone numbers, they were usually asked to make a small initial deposit.
A disturbing image of a bloodied Anthony Albanese is among a series of fake images of high-profile figures and celebrities being used in a sophisticated online clickbait scam.
Similar scams carried out by Virgin founder Richard Branson (above left)
“Sometimes they will be handed over to another agent or so-called manager and asked to invest more and more as time goes on,” he told the publication.
‘These relationships or these interactions can last days or several months.
“Sometimes they will even offer the victim a small amount to withdraw (give people the impression that they have made) these significant profits…unfortunately, when the rug is pulled out, it is often very difficult to recover those funds.”
The ads featuring Mr Albanese were distributed by Google’s third-party advertising spaces appearing on the websites of major news publishers, including the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Experts believe scams are pushed during the holiday seasons to trick unwitting victims into clicking on attention-grabbing headlines.
Bad actors also choose holidays to post their fake ads because they know that platforms like Google will have minimal security staff working.
Jerome Dangu, a global cybersecurity expert, told The Age that the fraudulent ads appeared to belong to a fraudulent advertising group called ‘eGobbler’.
The group received its nickname after it ran a malicious advertising campaign during Thanksgiving seven years ago.
Similar scams involving Virgin founder Richard Branson and former comedian Russell Brand include the tantalizing caption: “Is this the end of your career?”
Dangu said the company used attractive, sensational images of well-known names because they led people to click on them 30 times more than regular digital ads.
“A normal click-through rate is 0.1 percent or less, but because it’s so impactful, it generates click-through rates of 3 percent,” he told the newspaper.
“We have tens of millions of people who saw the ads…so you end up with maybe a million people who landed on that page.”
Scammers get around Google’s strict advertising rules by posing as a legitimate company with real ads.
But once the company has built trust, it publishes its bad ads, generating traffic to its site.
When Google manages to block it, the company has received hundreds of thousands of visitors.
A Google spokesperson said its team was still investigating how many Australians were exposed to doctored images of Albanese.
“Ads that exploit the names and likenesses of public figures for financial gain are unacceptable,” the spokesperson told the publication.
‘When we find ads that violate our policies, we will remove them. The ad in question was removed within hours.