It’s a total misuse of my image, says Judy over fake Bitcoin ad
JUDY Murray hit out at a social media website yesterday after it carried a fake advert which used her image to ‘endorse’ cryptocurrency.
Mrs Murray, 60, was pictured on a promoted LinkedIn advert marketing ‘Bitcoin compass’, a business she denied having anything to do with.
The post, which links to a news report about Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s money-making methods, infuriated the tennis coach.
Yesterday morning Mrs Murray tweeted: ‘I don’t have anything to do with Bitcoin. Total misuse of image by someone.’
The post was funded by Marvinpac, which describes itself as a ‘global player’ in the packaging industry – but has no known links to cryptocurrency.
It read: ‘Bitcoin Compass lets you profit from all these cryptocurrencies, even in a bear market.’
LinkedIn apologised and initially responded by sending Mrs Murray a form to report the advert and file a Notice of Copyright Infringement.
Adam French, consumer rights expert at Which?, said: ‘Scam ads can reach thousands of people quickly and have devastating consequences for those who are caught out.
‘Measures must be taken to get these ads off the site quickly or, better still, stopped before they go live.’
A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Agency said: ‘If something is a scam, first and foremost it would be a matter for Trading Standards or Action Fraud.
‘Apart from this, any post is subject to our general rules requiring ads do not mislead.’
A LinkedIn spokesman said: ‘Fake or misleading adverts are a clear violation of our terms of service. When they are identified on LinkedIn, we take swift action to remove them.
‘In this instance, our support team contacted the affected member and launched an investigation, resulting in the advert being removed.’
Marvinpac did not respond to requests for comment.
The news came as Mrs Murray welcomed her newest grandchild into the family.
Her son, Sir Andy, and his wife Kim celebrated the birth of their third child, who Mrs Murray labelled a ‘lovely, happy, healthy baby boy’.
She said: ‘It’s lovely to have a little boy to go with the two little girls. [He was] born a few days ago. I’ll leave Andy and Kim to fill in the details.’