Fake Guardian Articles Are Tricking People Into Scam Investment Sites
Criminals are building convincing copies of trusted news websites, complete with fake celebrity stories, to push victims toward fraudulent trading platforms.
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.
- No regulation currently requires 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 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.
None of it happened.
Buried in the fake article is a link 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 built to take your money.
This is a form of social engineering: criminals build a believable situation to make you act before you think.
Investigators who have reviewed similar sites describe them as "a very good clone," as first reported by the Guardian. The mimicry covers article layouts, author bylines, and comment sections. Nothing visually signals danger.
The scam follows a pattern regulators in the UK and Europe have tracked over recent years. A victim deposits a small amount, sees an apparent profit on screen, deposits more, and cannot withdraw anything. The profits were never real.
Should ordinary people worry about this?
Yes, because the warning signs are subtle and these sites are built to survive a quick glance.
A few practical checks help. Go directly to the news outlet's own website by typing its address into your browser rather than following a social media link: if the story isn't there, it doesn't exist. Search the investment platform's name 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. Treat any article that ends with an investment link as a red flag, regardless of how convincing the surrounding text looks.
On the regulatory side, we covered the UK's Online Safety Act obligations on platforms in our 12 July story "Ofcom Wants Big Tech to Stop Scam Ads. Here's What That Means for You.", which found platforms face fines of up to 10% of global revenue if they fail to act. Ofcom is still finalising enforcement guidance. The rules exist; what's missing is proof they bite.
If you've already sent money to a platform like this, contact your bank immediately and report the site to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk.
