Fact CheckedLast Updated on May 8, 2022 by Stephan Lindburg
Have you seen an advertisement about ANZ Bank and it’s plans to announce it’s own cryptocurrency platform? Some of our members from Australia have complained about this fake ad which includes a fake interview with Shayne Elliot, ANZ Bank CEO. For those of you who are not aware, ANZ happens to be one of the four largest banks in Australia. As a result we launched an investigation. Our investigative methodologies are based on a very strict protocol.
The first thing we did was to reach out to Nick Higginbottom who is the Senior Media relations manager at ANZ bank and make an official inquiry. To date, we have not received a response. However, if it arrives we shall update our ANZ Bank Bitcoin scam and fake news review.
The second thing we always do is try to message the people who have written the article by sending them an email. However, when we attempted to do so by clicking the contact page in the fake news website, we immediately received a message from McAfee WebAdvisor that this link is “suspicious”. We have added a screenshot of this for you in the bottom section of our article.
At this point we understood exactly what was happening here, but we decided to let these people enjoy the benefit of the doubt and continue with our checklist in order to validate our initial claims.
Moving along, as we scroll down the rest of the article we can see how Australian ANZ Bank CEO Shayne Elliot is presented to the readers. In the fictitious interview he is quoted as saying that “ANZSec” is the “simplest” way to generate money without having prior knowledge of the financial markets.
The ANZ Bank Bitcoin scam is a classic example of clickbait ads. Scammers have shifted from fake celebrity-endorsements to phony interviews with trusted bank CEOS like Shayne Elliot. Please conduct proper research before joining!
In the article, we can see Elliot being quoted as saying that if you invest $1,000 in cryptocurrencies today, it could be worth $100,000 by 2023. We have also added an image of that interview for you below.
We searched for information regarding ANZSec, but were unable to come up with anything. However, when we did try to register for the offer we were blocked again by our antivirus software and advised that we have clicked on a suspicious link (see image below).
At this point we decided to stop our investigation and simply report our findings. These can be summed up in three major bullet points.
- While it is possible that ANZ Bank is getting into cryptocurrencies, there are scammers out there who are using this in order to promote get-rich-quick schemes.
- Shayne Elliot, The CEO of ANZ Bank will never endorse fraudulent trading software. We don’t have to wait for an official response from ANZ bank in order to understand that.
- The links inside the fake news website we found are suspicious. Most likely there is some kind of virus which will be downloaded to your PC or device if you decide to ignore the warnings and continue to the website.
Who Is Responsible For Promoting This Scam?
The con artists who are responsible for producing the ANZ Bank Bitcoin scam are affiliate networks and media agencies. These people receive commissions every time someone registers from their campaign. These commissions are very sizeable, and for that reason the promoters are willing to invest a lot of money in order to gain your attention and convince you to invest money.
Trusted Alternatives
Despite everything, every now and then a new software is launched and if we believe it has potential we start testing it. If it passes our screening process and generates consistent profits we add it to our recommended section where it is made available to our members at no cost.
ANZ Bank Bitcoin Scam. Our Opinion, Some Facts, And Conclusions
Have you seen a fake ANZ Bank Bitcoin article featuring Shayne Elliot and the “ANZSec” algorithmic trading software? If so, we highly recommend you refrain from clicking any of the links inside. We can conclude with a 100% degree of certainty that all the links inside are spammy and are probably some kind of malware or spyware which is installed on your laptop or mobile device.
The objective of the ANZ Bank Bitcoin Scam is to entice unsuspecting victims into registering with unlicensed offshore CFD (contracts for difference brokers). One users are registered they are subjected to a barrage of incessant phone calls from unethical sales reps pretending to be legitimate investing platforms. We urge you to exercise extreme caution when surfing on the bogus website, and refrain from joining.
