Aussies urged to be wary of celebrity scams

DOES it feel a bit dodgy for Kyle Sandilands’ image to be used to flog skin care cream?

What about Meghan Markle hocking weight loss pills, or Delta Goodrem spruiking investment schemes?

If a celebrity endorsement seems a bit far fetched or too good to be true, it’s probably a scam. The number of Australians ripped off by product scams purporting to be en- dorsed by celebrities has soared by 400 per cent in the past year.

The consumer watchdog ScamWatch website has received almost 200 reports of fake celebrity-backed products in 2018, with losses totalling $142,000.

Most people lost between $100 and $500, with one victim swindled out of more than $50,000.

Images of television presenters including Lisa Wilkinson, Sonia Kruger and Georgie Gardner have all been used in recent celebrity endorsement scams.

Delia Rickard, from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, says the groups behind celebrity endorsement scams are sophisticated fraudsters.

“It’s easy for them to create fake ads and websites to give credibility to their con, so people need to be very careful and sceptical about ads they read on social media and websites,” Ms Rickard said.

The ACCC wants Google, Facebook and Instagram to crack down harder on fake ads.

Australians sprung by scams are being urged to call their banks immediately to try and arrange a chargeback.