UK’s Youngest Millionaire Akshay Phillips’ Endorsement Falsely Used in Bitcoin Scam Ads
By Space Coast Daily // November 17, 2020
Scammers have been around a lot longer than Bitcoin, but they’ve taken the rise of cryptocurrencies as an opportunity to expand their domain. They’ve built up a new repertoire of methods to draw in new victims.
Bitcoin scams often promote themselves by using fake endorsements from real celebrities. One of these celebrities is Akshay Phillips, the youngest millionaire in the UK. He’s been appearing in fake ads for a shady software named Bitcoin Up.
Where Are These New Scams Coming From?
Many steps go into these scams, and driving traffic towards the scam website is the first one. Scammers pay their affiliates based on how many victims are successfully funneled to the website.
One of the most effective ways to drive traffic is to simply lie and say that some celebrity has made huge amounts of money with the scam broker. Because of this, we see countless examples of endorsement fraud all over the internet.
The big promise that scammers fail to deliver on is automated trading. They claim that they’ve developed a complex system that can predict market fluctuations so perfectly just like bitqt that all you have to do to make money is put down your initial deposit.
These claims are a blatant lie, and the scammers have no such system. Once you make your deposit, you’ll never get that money back. Offshore CFD brokers make it impossible to withdraw your funds and leave you with no recourse.
Financial Superstar Framed as Fraudster’s Spokesperson
Akshay Phillips is famous for having become the UK’s youngest millionaire at the age of 17. He made his fortune through his revolutionary online real estate company that offers to sell homes while charging only £99 as commission.
He has a very active online presence, where he espouses that the secret to building his wealth is to apply today’s technology to already established industries.
His renown as a young millionaire who built his fortune with technology made Akshay the perfect choice for a fake celebrity endorsement. His name was used by a known scam broker to promote themselves.
The fake ad was a story about a fictional interview in which “Akshay Phillips” revealed that his wealth was thanks to the broker’s trading app. A picture from a real and unrelated interview is used in the ad to make it look more legitimate. The ad claims that Akshay pulls in over £23,000 each month from the app.
These scammers use big names from many industries, but the tech industry’s ultrarich stars are among their favorites. Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and many more appear in these phony advertisements.
The scammers choose names that people would trust when it comes to ways to make money with technology. Their pitch of automated Bitcoin trading certainly sounds like the kind of thing the youngest millionaire in the UK would be up to, but the ads are entirely false.
Avoiding Online Investment Scams
Only invest online with a registered and reputable broker. Every country has its own financial regulator that tracks which brokers can legally do business within the country. Unregistered brokers might try to lure you in with promises of guaranteed returns and big bonuses, but it’s all lies. Don’t risk losing your hard-earned money on shady investment schemes.
