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Dragon’s Den entrepreneur and Irish Presidential candidate, Gavin Duffy, has once again had his identity used by a cryptocurrency scam. Images of Duffy and fake testimonials were used to promote Bitcoin Revolution, a fraudulent automated trading platform.
Duffy’s Face Proves Popular for Scam Artists
There must be something about Gavin Duffy’s face that makes it suitably trustworthy to launch a fraudulent company with.
The Irish entrepreneur who is running for president of the nation has had his likeness used to front a cryptocurrency scam for the second time this year. According to a report in The Irish Sun, Duffy’s image and name feature in a fake article, which are used to promote the company being advertised.
The piece details an Irish digital currency startup. It goes on to say that the firm has just “landed the biggest investment ever made in Dragon’s Den history.” The story goes that two Dublin-based university students appeared on the popular business and investing television show. The firm they were pitching was called “Bitcoin Revolution” – a supposedly automated service allowing customers to profit from arbitrage opportunities presented by the volatile markets.
The article states that Duffy was offering to put up a massive €30 million for a stake in the startup. This prompted the other Dragons to step in and try to outbid the presidential hopeful. However, none of this happened and no such episode of the TV show has ever appeared on the RTE network, or any other television channel, for that matter.
To try and make the advert appear more legitimate, those behind it have spent time making the site it was posted to closely resemble that of RTE – Ireland’s national broadcasting company. The page also links to a Facebook account called RTE 2. Likewise, this has no relationship with the television station.
Bitcoin Revolution claims that it can multiply a small investment in just days. According to the advert, a minimum investment of €220 is required. Using this, the startup states that almost €2,000 can be generated in just a week.
However, this is not the first time that Duffy has been used as the face of a fraudulent company. Earlier this year, a startup called BitCoin Trader made very similar claims to those touted by Bitcoin Revolution.
In both cases, all the investor would need to do is buy a position in Bitcoin, deposit to the website, and allow the “unique algorithm” to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities automatically. In the example of BitCoin Trader, other Dragons were also used to promote the scam platform. The TV personalities were quick to publicly denounce the scam and distance themselves from it once they became known of it.
In the case of Bitcoin Revolution, a spokesperson for Duffy and the RTE network itself has spoken out about the fraudulent firm. The TV broadcasters have appealed to Facebook to have the fake account deleted. Meanwhile, one of the presidential hopeful’s staff stated:
“We are aware of this scam and we have urged the public to ignore it and report it to the relevant authorities.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
