Fake Guardian Articles Are Tricking People Into Scam Investment Sites

Key points

• Fraudsters are creating near-identical copies of well-known news websites, including the Guardian, to make fake investment stories look credible.
• The fake articles use real public figures, including billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, to invent dramatic stories designed to build trust.
• Victims are led to fraudulent cryptocurrency and stock-trading platforms where they lose real money.
• There is no regulation requiring social media platforms to verify that linked articles come from the outlets they claim to represent.

A fake news article appears in your social media feed. It carries the Guardian's logo, uses its fonts, and reads exactly like something the paper would publish. The story claims that billionaire Jim Ratcliffe stormed out of a BBC interview after presenter Laura Kuenssberg exposed details of his finances, and that the clip has since been removed from iPlayer.

It didn't happen. None of it did.

But buried in the fake article is a link. It points to an online investment platform, described as a secret tool Ratcliffe uses to grow his wealth, one that ordinary people can supposedly access too. Click through, and you arrive at a fraudulent trading site designed to take your money.

This is a form of social engineering, meaning criminals engineer a believable situation to make you act before you think. The fake news story is the trap door.

The pages themselves are sophisticated. Investigators who have reviewed similar sites describe them as "a very good clone," as first reported by the Guardian. The mimicry extends to article layouts, author bylines, and even comment sections. Nothing visually signals danger.

The scam follows a pattern regulators in the UK and Europe have seen grow sharply over the past two years. A victim deposits a small amount on the fake platform, sees an apparent profit on screen, deposits more, and then finds they cannot withdraw anything. The "profits" were never real.

Should ordinary people worry about this?

Yes, because the warning signs are subtle and the sites are built to defeat a quick glance. The fake article looks exactly like a real one.

A few practical checks help. First, go directly to the news outlet's own website by typing its address into your browser rather than clicking a social media link. If the story does not appear there, it does not exist. Second, search the name of the investment platform independently. Legitimate platforms are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK government body that oversees financial firms. The FCA publishes a free public register at fca.org.uk where you can check any firm in seconds. Third, treat any article that ends with an investment link as a red flag, no matter how convincing the surrounding text looks.

On the regulatory side, the UK's Online Safety Act places new duties on platforms to reduce fraudulent advertising, and Ofcom is currently finalising enforcement guidance. The rules are on the books. Enforcement is the next test.

If you have already sent money to a platform like this, contact your bank immediately and report the site to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk.