Fact CheckedLast Updated on December 28, 2020 by Stephan Lindburg
Bear Grylls Bitcoin Scam: Did This British Survivalist Rake In Millions From Home?
If you’ve been using social media recently, you might have seen a so-called “special report” about Bear Grylls making a fortune trading Bitcoin. This is a fake story which was crafted by affiliate marketers in order to lure new victims into Bitcoin investment schemes. The ad certainly looks legitimate, with images of Grylls and the host of ITV’s This Morning from a supposed interview and a series of news company logos. This new tactic for passing traffic to scam sites is becoming more common as Bitcoin’s price continues to rise.
The fake stories spread like wildfire through social media, in advertisements, spread by fake accounts, and shared by real people who don’t know that it’s a scam. It very much resembles a legitimate news story, but that is very far from the truth. The affiliate networks that spread the reports go to great lengths to make them seem legitimate. The celebrated British survivalist Bear Grylls is just one of their victims, with countless other celebrities appearing in other fake news stories.
Bear Grylls Bitcoin: Former SAS Serviceman Star Fake Interview
Most people will recognize Bear Grylls from his widely popular reality television series Man vs. Wild, which ran from 2006 to 2011. The Discovery Channel series featured Grylls showcasing his survivalist skills as he set out to survive in a different inhospitable wilderness for each episode. The former SAS serviceman went on to host and star in several other shows and specials afterward. His expert survivalist skills led to him becoming the youngest Chief Scout of the United Kingdom at 35.
His latest dangerous adventure has been as the star of a fake news story promoting Bitcoin scams. This story takes a few pictures from real interviews to look more legitimate. The article has several prominent UK news organizations’ logos placed at the top, falsely implying that they’ve picked up the story. This fake news story gives the details of a fake interview between Grylls and the host of ITV’s This Morning, Phillip Schofield. They say that the ITV interview ran too long and that they themselves interviewed Grylls for further details on his Bitcoin earnings.
Bear Gryll’s “Secret Wealth Woophole”
The article promotes what they call a “wealth loophole” that is making UK citizens millions upon millions of pounds. They even say that an executive at Barclays retail bank tried to prevent the airing of the utterly fictional interview and that host Phillip Schofield received a suspension for airing such sensitive information, making readers think that they found a genuinely exclusive loophole. Their phony interview with Grylls included quotes from the survivalist claiming that he’s making tens of thousands of pounds a day on autopilot, exploiting the scammers’ perfected cryptocurrency trading algorithms.
This story, and others like it, are the work of affiliate marketers that simply make up stories designed to entice victims in order to get them to register for fraudulent software (AKA Crypto Robots) like Immediate Edge, Bitcoin Prime, and BitQT. The promoters receive compensation for the customers they bring to these scams, and fake celebrity endorsements have proven to be a handy tool.
Scammers Play Bait and Switch With Cryptocurrencies
Once you click the link from the fake story to the scam website, the campaign is tracked to a certain promoter and reflected in the affiliate panel statistics section. These types of websites offers you a “chance to make profitable investments” in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. What the victims don’t know is that they’re receiving no such thing. The scammers are selling CFDs (contracts for differences), a derivative asset. When somebody buys Bitcoin, they have the option to transfer, trade, or store their cryptocurrency in a virtual or even physical electronic wallet. CFDs are complex financial instruments which involve significant risk, but this is hardly mentioned.
Bear Grylls Bitcoin Scam: The Stay at Home Income Hopes That Dupe Victims
Of course, anyone buying Bitcoin can do it through reputable brokers, exchanges, or other establishments. The scam websites convince traders to invest with them due to their advanced automated trading system. The claim is simple; expert algorithms make perfect trades that make thousands in profit every single day. New traders often look for easy money and often become scam victims in that pursuit. The people behind these scams don’t have this technology. Nobody does. A trading system like that would bring billions from the highest bidder instead of being shopped around to people browsing social media. Don’t lose your hard-earned money investing in what is a cut-and-dry scam. If you have any questions or need additional clarifications, please reach out and message us through our contact page or social media.
