Scam bitcoin ads trading off unauthorised images of Dick Smith, Andrew Forrest and other celebrities, which have taken in tens of thousands of Australians, are part of a highly organised global business that uses five addresses in the centre of Moscow, a Guardian investigation has found. The sheer scale of the scam has made it difficult for Google to block them, and for Australian regulators to take action. The fake celebrity ads have run on news websites since at least 2018, but with people stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, many more have been caught out by the scams. In the most common form of the scam, the unwitting user who clicks on an ad is taken to a fake news story that includes a link purporting to be a cryptocurrency investment scheme. If they enter their details to
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