SCAM ADS WHICH use photos containing doctored Irish Independent headlines have claimed that comedian Dara Ó Briain and broadcaster Pat Kenny were recently involved in separate scandals.
The ads appear on Facebook, featuring photos of Kenny and Ó Briain and similar text in their posts, though with some difference wording.
“He didn’t know his microphone was on,” the images of both ads read. “These are his last words and the end of his career.”
However, despite featuring the Irish Independent’s logo, no such articles have been published by that paper, according to searches of its website.
These hoax ads and articles are the latest in a long line of attempts to use fake scandals about Irish celebrities to promote cryptocurrency schemes, including AI-generated videos featuring Michael, O’Leary, as well as an interview between Elon Musk and Irish BBC newsreader Tadhg Enright.
Previous ads of this nature have featured politicians Leo Varadkar, Micheál Martin and Enda Kenny, as well as television presenters such as Anne Doyle, Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh, Maura Derrane, Ryan Tubridy, Colette Fitzpatrick, Ciara Doherty, Brian Dowling, and Alan Hughes.
The Journal has previously debunked hoax ads featuring images of political strategist Alastair Campbell on the Late Late Show with Patrick Kielty; a fake interview of Eamon Ryan on the Tommy Tiernan Show; and fake photos of presenter Tommy Bowe being escorted by PSNI officers.
The scam ads featuring Kenny and Ó Briain follow a similar template.
“News this morning shocked everyone in Ireland!”, the text of one says. “The allegations against Dara O’Brien [sic] confirm that his career is coming to an end!”
The ads featuring Kenny lead to a website made to look like that of the Irish Independent, but featuring stories pushing cryptocurrency trading platform that did not appear on the Independent’s real site.
Records on the Meta Ad Library show that at least 11 active ads using the image of Ó Briain with the fake headline are still active on Facebook.
The library shows that earlier versions of the same ad, which are no longer active.
The page that posted the hoax ads regularly posts ads, many of which also appear to be scams, often in various languages, and has had dozens of their ads removed with the explanation from Meta that they were “not following our Advertising Standards”.
Meta’s Ad Library shows that the page which posted the scam ads using Pat Kenny’s image also has dozens of suspicious ads, though more than a hundred of these now show generic images of plants.
However, the links associated with these ads show that they were once made to look like they were directing users to legitimate websites, such as rte.ie.
Given that the Pat Kenny ad still appears on Facebook, but does not appear in this ad library, it seems that the user has found a way to partially mask what they are doing to researchers using the ad library.
When users click on a link to a third-party website that is contained on the ad featuring Kenny’s image, they are taken to a fake website that looks like the legitimate website of the Irish Independent, independent.ie.
Users who visit this third-party website see a story that at first glance looks like it was published by independent.ie.
The headline of the article, which is written in the same style and font as a legitimate story on the Irish Independent’s website, reads: “Virgin Media Television management refuses to comment on the scandal surrounding its show ‘Ireland AM’.
However, this is actually a scam: a search of the website shows that the story was never actually published by the real independent.ie.
The story describes a heated discussion between Kenny and Ireland AM presenter Alan Hughes, and claims that Kenny signed Hughes up for a cryptocurrency trading platform with a deposit of €250.
No such programme was actually broadcast on Ireland AM.
Although the ads which use Dara Ó Briain’s image appear to be similar, links to third-party websites on those ads no longer work and now lead people to the legitimate independent.ie home page.
Dara Ó Briain posted a screenshot of the scam featuring himself to the social media platform X.
“I regret to inform you that my career is over,” he joked. “I said some things, and it ended badly. Damn that microphone!”
He later clarified in a response that the ads were not genuine. “If it needs to be said, if you see this anywhere on the internet, please do not take any of the financial advice contained within,” he wrote.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) told The Journal that celebrity crypto scams were well-known.
“Scammers may pretend to be a celebrity advertising crypto on social media or a reputable website,” the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) said.
“The ad will promise their followers high returns on their investment. For example, asking their followers to take part in a giveaway scheme for free cryptocurrency.
“Cryptocurrencies are unregulated, which means that no central bank guarantees them or controls their supply, and this could perhaps be a reason why cryptocurrencies are a popular choice for scammers.”
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