Channel Seven star Larry Emdur is the latest Australian celebrity to fall victim to an online image scam.
The Gold Logie winner’s image is being used in multiple fake news stories that have appeared as sponsored posts on Reddit.
The posts, shared on Reddit by the Fidelfromuruguay account, purport to be ABC news about Emdur.
One post shows a photo of Emdur alongside a group of police officers with the headline: ‘Is this the end of his career? – Larry regrets his words. I didn’t know the microphone was on.
The account added: “How would you act in this situation?” to the clickbait publication.
A second post from the same account showed Larry apparently being interviewed on a podcast.
Channel Seven star Larry Emdur is the latest Australian celebrity to fall victim to an online image scam.
The post read: Larry’s career faces big problems. He didn’t realize the microphone was on.
While both posts featured the ABC News logo, the link they took unsuspecting redditors to was anything but.
Readers would end up on the news18breaking.com site which was created to be a replica of the ABC home page.
The site featured a false story, supposedly written by Alan Kohler, about the Bank of Australia suing Emdur over on-air comments.
However, the story was a thinly veiled advertisement for a get-rich-quick trading site.
The story claimed Emdur was the presenter of Channel Seven’s Sunrise and featured a fabricated transcript of a conversation between Emdur and his Seven colleague Natalie Barr about a company called Stratice.
“This time we asked the Sunrise team for help and were able to obtain the recording data of this program,” the fraudulent article states.
‘Please note that this article, like the broadcast, may be deleted immediately. Therefore, we recommend that those reading this article take a look at the link provided by Mr. Larry Emdur himself.’
It is not the first time the Channel Seven star has been the target of an online scam.
The posts, shared on Reddit by the Fidelfromuruguay account, purport to be ABC news about Emdur.
Readers would end up on the news18breaking.com site which was created to be a replica of the ABC home page.
In February 2024, Larry took to Instagram to alert his followers about a similar post circulating on social media.
“People keep sending me this, it’s everywhere,” he shared in the post of a fake news link showing Emdur, spelled Emdure, and Natalie Barr.
‘Please don’t click on it (or anything like it), it’s complete and utter nonsense***. ‘
Larry completed his warning with a dose of his trademark humor.
‘If you would like to offer some money to a legitimate cause close to my heart that is not a scam, then please donate to The Larry Emdur Mortgage Appeal Banco Central de Panamá Account Name: Happy As Inc’ Trading As: Sylvie You Will Never Find This Money Pty Ltd.
“I know these are difficult times, but thank you.”
Former Sunrise host David ‘Kochie’ Koch criticized Meta (Facebook) in June for failing to remove fraudulent ads using his image.
Along with billionaire Andrew Forrest and businessman Dick Smith, Koch is part of an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission lawsuit against Meta filed in 2022, accusing it of misleading conduct by allowing fraudulent ads, according to The Australian.
The site featured a false story, supposedly written by Alan Kohler, about the Bank of Australia suing Emdur over on-air comments. Emdur is pictured with fellow Channel Seven star Kylie Gillies.
However, the story was a thinly veiled advertisement for a get-rich-quick trading site. Emdur appears in the photo with his wife Sylvie
“I’m just devastated by what (the scams do to) everyday people – it’s people’s life savings,” he said.
‘If (Meta has) algorithms that can detect inappropriate customer posts on a platform, why don’t they have the same algorithms that can also detect inappropriate advertising and content on their platforms?’ Koch asked.
The economic expert compared scammers to “the new drug cartels,” and urged platforms to compensate victims or stop these types of ads.
“They are only here to scam people financially and it is the boiler rooms in the Philippines or Eastern Europe that run them all.”
“Certainly, platforms have a responsibility to compensate people who have been scammed or to stop these ads on the platform.”