Richard Branson Takes Aim at Crypto Scams That Use His Name as Lure
British billionaire Richard Branson hit out at cryptocurrency scammers and said he’s stepping up efforts to stop his name from being used to convince unsuspecting victims to sign up to fraudulent schemes.
“It’s a terrible thing because it affects a small person who can ill afford it,” Branson said in an interview in Austin, Texas. “We are doing enormous amounts to try to stop it.”
The Virgin Group founder said he has spoken with Meta Platforms Inc.’s outgoing Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg about erroneous promotions appearing on Facebook, and directed lawyers to confront other social media players whose platforms have hosted fake advertising.
Branson spoke in Austin during a promotional visit after his Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. launched flights there. The city was also hosting CoinDesk’s Consensus conference, one of the crypto industry’s largest annual confabs.
In the UK, Branson has joined with business figures including Martin Lewis, founder of consumer website MoneySavingExpert.com, to persuade the government to include paid-for scam ads in the new Online Safety Bill, which will make tech firms responsible for user-generated cons. Legislation including the amendment was published in March and is proceeding through Parliament.
Branson’s name may be particularly open to exploitation because he has backed Bitcoin as a sensible investment. A report last year from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre listed him as among celebrities whose names are most often used by cryptocurrency fraudsters.
The scams typically feature fake online newspaper reports in which individuals appear to endorse crypto schemes that readers can access via links in the articles. Money is extracted from the unwary in a variety of ways,
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