WINSLET FIGHTS BITCOIN SCAM
DRUG BLITZES SAVE 1,000 KIDS FROM GANGS
MOVIE star Kate Winslet is taking action against online scammers for using her image in a fake advert for Bitcoin – after a tip-off from The People.
We alerted her to posts quoting a fabricated BBC news interview in which she appears to push people to invest £ 300 by trading a cryptocurrency – digital money – called Bitcoin Code.
The Oscar winner “reveals” she profits from a “wealth loophole”.
Photos of Kate – who has built a £36million fortune from her Hollywood career – appear alongside a BBC logo.
And they falsely claim she told newscaster Huw Edwards in a News at Ten interview: “What’s made me successful is jumping into new opportunities quickly – without any hesitation.
“Right now my No1 money-maker is a new cryptocurrency auto-trading program called Bitcoin Code.”
The fake story goes on: “It’s the single biggest opportunity
I’ve seen in an entire lifetime to build a small fortune fast.”
Readers are invited to sign up with a £300 deposit followed by another £50 to buy the software. The star, 43, is even quoted saying:
“It will NOT be around forever, rever, so do not miss out.”
A spokeskeswoman f or
Kate – filming ming a r e - make e of
Black Beauty eauty – said: “This his misleading promotion romotion is completely etely disingenuous and categorically false.
“We are dealing with this through gh the appropriate channels.” els.”
Kate, married to Richard Branson’s n’s nephew Ned Rocknroll, l l , 41, i s not the scammers’ ’ first star victim.
Moneysavingexpert.com Savingexpert.com founder Martin Lewis won a battle with Facebook in 2018 after 1,000 scam ads using his name or face appeared on it.
He said: : “This will be them fishing to see how good ood Kate Winslet is. For some people an A-list Hollywood star has more resonance than a UK money saving expert like me.
“If she is reaching a new market, you’ll see more of them.
“These are thieves and just as they’ve used Kate Winslet’s brand to sell, they’ve used Bitcoin’s brand to get people to part with money too.” MORE than 1,000 children were found to be linked to “county lines” drug- dealing criminals during a series of crackdowns.
The youngsters and 1,400 other vulnerable people were given protection from gangs exploiting them.
A total of 131 were passed to the National Referral Mechanism, which identifies potential human trafficking victims.
The three blitzes, each a week long, were carried out last October, January and May, said the National County Lines Coordination Centre.
The group, funded by the Home Office, was set up last September by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the National Crime Agency. Its title refers to the mobile phone lines on which drug users place orders with gangs expanding from cities into small towns.
The young and vulnerable are often forced to run drugs or to let their homes be used as drug dens.
During the blitzes, said the NCLCC, officers disrupted 403 drug lines, made 1,882 arrests, seized narcotics worth £182,000 and found 391 weapons, including 38 guns. Dep Asst Commissioner Duncan Ball of the NPCC said: “Since the centre was set up we’ve made great strides in tackling and dismantling cruel county lines gangs and protecting vulnerable people they exploit.”
Minister for Crime Kit Malthouse said: “County lines have a devastating impact on our communities. We work relentlessly to disrupt these gangs and end this exploitation.”