Clone News Sites Faked to Lure Victims to Scam Investment Platforms

Fraudsters have created cloned versions of trusted news websites, inserting fabricated articles with links to fake investment platforms to steal money.

• A Guardian spokesperson said the brand is exploited by criminals using fake articles, fabricated headlines, and AI-generated imagery.
• Nick Percoco, Kraken chief security officer, said criminals clone trusted brands and use invented news stories to push victims to copycat sites.
• The fake articles appear on social media feeds and direct users to cloned trading platforms, such as a fake Kraken site.
• Fact-checking charity Full Fact identified that images in the fake articles contained SynthID watermarks, indicating they were created with Google AI tools.