Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, Penny Wong, has unfortunately found her image exploited in a recent infusion of cryptocurrency investment scams appearing on social media, in anticipation of upcoming laws that threaten to penalise platforms with a hefty $50m fine for complacency towards such advertisements.

The deceptive ads have been spotted on social media platforms, feigning legitimacy by linking to a manufactured article purporting to be from News.com.au. This misleading piece falsely alleges that Senator Wong was incarcerated for discussing a cryptocurrency investment on television.

This ethically questionable tactic parallels past scams featuring embellished images of other public personalities such as Guy Sebastian and Sophie Monk.

A representative for Senator Wong highlighted the government's scam prevention framework, while the National Anti-Scams Centre emphasised the need for social media platforms to adopt proactive monitoring and take greater responsibility for eliminating scams.

In 2024, Australia recorded almost 1,900 instances of investment-related fraud originating from social media, leading to a staggering loss of $45.5m.

- CyberBeat