Bank urges social media firms to crack down on fake ads

BANK of Ireland has called on social media companies to ‘crack down’ on the widespread number of fake advertisements after a bogus news article claimed the bank had sued Tánaiste Micheál Martin.

The articles appear to be from genuine media outlets, but are false advertisements that fraudsters pay for online.

They feature fabricated news stories with claims about specific cryptocurrency trading platforms, designed to entice readers to websites where they can be defrauded.

Earlier this month, one such post read: ‘Bank of Ireland sues Micheál Martin for his words on a live broadcast.’

The scam article reported a ‘scandal had erupted during a live broadcast’ on Virgin Media in which Mr Martin disclosed a money-making secret which prompted the Irish bank to demand that ‘the programme be stopped immediately’.

Another falsely claimed Oscar winner Cillian Murphy was being sued by Bank of Ireland over comments he made on the American talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Nicola Sadlier, head of fraud at Bank of Ireland, said social media companies need to be more proactive in preventing these ads from appearing on their platform.

‘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,’ she said.

‘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,’ she said.

In December, Mr Martin took legal action against Google to secure information about the source of such fake adverts using his name and image.

A spokesman for Fianna Fáil said at the time: ‘The Tánaiste believes it is neither acceptable nor tolerable that persons unknown can use his image and name online in an effort to associate him with financial products he has never heard of and seek to extract money from people, using his name.’