France's financial markets regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), has issued a public warning about a rise in fraudulent schemes that use cloned news websites to impersonate major media brands. Scammers are copying the visual identities of outlets such as Le Monde, Le Figaro, France Info, and TF1 to publish fabricated articles promoting unauthorized trading platforms, including one named BitKeltTrade.
These fake articles often feature deepfake content and false quotes attributed to prominent political figures, business leaders, and sports celebrities, falsely claiming they discovered AI-driven automated trading platforms during live interviews.
This scam model is not limited to France. In Australia, law enforcement and investigative journalists uncovered a large fraud network that used similar fake news campaigns to target over 4,000 victims, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The operation involved international call centres based in countries including Israel, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Cyprus, South Africa, and the Philippines.
Analysis of AMF enforcement data from 2010 to 2026 reveals that corporate and brand impersonation accounted for 85.1% of all impersonation-related warnings (1,317 warnings). Impersonation of the AMF itself represented 10.9% (168 warnings), while forex broker impersonation was just 0.6% (9 warnings). Other categories included tangible assets and gold platforms at 1.6% (24 warnings).
The data highlights how fraudsters exploit the credibility of established media, financial companies, and public authorities to make fraudulent offers appear trustworthy. Monthly data for 2025 and 2026 show these campaigns remain persistent and volatile.
