Robert Irwin falls victim to disgusting ‘fake news’ scam – as an urgent warning is issued to Aussies

Scammers have targeted Robert Irwin with fake Facebook ads claiming he has been arrested – as part of attempts to cheat Aussies out of their hard-earned money.

The hoax ads are mock-ups of the front pages of major Australian newspapers showing Mr Irwin being arrested, with his arms pinned behind his back, and being led away by police.

The images are completely fabricated and created using artificial intelligence to look authentic.

One hoax spreading on Facebook is a fake front page of the Sydney Morning Herald with the headline: ‘Is this the end of his career? Robert Irwin didn’t know the camera was still recording.’

One hoax spreading on Facebook is a fake front page of the Sydney Morning Herald with the headline: ‘Is this the end of his career? Robert Irwin didn’t know the camera was still recording.’

It links to a fake news article claiming a bank is suing Mr Irwin over comments he made on live TV.

The fake news article describes a completely fabricated incident during an episode of The Cheap Seats.

This fictional account claims that Mr. Irwin unveiled a trading platform called Trade iPlex 100, which he supposedly said could make people rich through AI-driven cryptocurrency trading.

Readers are asked to give Mr. Irwin $375 so he can make money using cryptocurrency.

None of this is true. The incident, the platform and the claims are completely fabricated by scammers trying to take your money. Mr Irwin is not involved in any way.

Mr Irwin is in no way involved in the scam. Pictured with his mother Terri

The Australian government’s National Anti Scam Center said scammers are using the image, name and characteristics of famous people without their consent to get you to ‘invest’ in cryptocurrency scams.

These can be very realistic, as scammers use artificial intelligence to create ‘deepfakes’ of the person.

These images and voices are often difficult to recognize as fake.

The images of the celebrities are often used in advertisements on social media or YouTube and in fake news stories that appear to come from a well-known news company.

How scammers are targeting Australians

The money lost to scams is moving in the right direction, even as fraudsters take advantage of the cost of living crisis to target people looking for side hustles.

An 11 percent decline in overall scam losses was recorded in the March quarter, the National Anti-Scam Center said in a report.

Most of the improvement was due to declining losses from investment fraud.

There have been several fake news articles about Robert Irwin spread online. None of this is true. The incident, the platform and the claims are completely fabricated by scammers trying to take your money.

But with a significant loss of $73.2 million to fraudsters in the past three months and a slight increase in the number of scams reported to the government agency compared to the previous quarter, Australia faces an uphill battle.

Scammers began exploiting the cost-of-living crisis, the report found, by duping social media users trying to earn extra money through second jobs or side hustles.

By posing as department stores, hotels or other businesses, scammers have lured users in with offers of good wages and flexibility, then asked for small payments to complete tasks with the promise of repayment later.

Younger Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds were most at risk for these increasingly popular scams, the center said in its report.

Overall, social media scams continued their upward trend in the March quarter, up 11.8 percent.

But progress was made on losses from scams circulating on the platforms, down 10.7 percent, from $15.9 million in October to December last year to $14.2 million in January to March.

Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said the crackdown on the scam, including the creation of the National Anti-Scam Center last year, was working.

“Scam losses have fallen for the first time in almost a decade since we released the first phase of our strategy, but we still have more to do,” he said.

The federal government has consulted on mandatory sector codes that will require digital platforms, banks and telecom companies to curb the risk of fraud or face fines.

Mr Jones said the codes would raise the bar for key sectors.