Reddit Ads Are Now Impersonating BBC & Financial Times to Push AI Investment Scams

I came across an interesting cybersecurity report today that I think is worth sharing here, especially for those using Reddit for research, marketing, or lead generation.

According to researchers at Bitdefender, scammers are running sponsored Reddit ads that impersonate major news brands such as BBC, Financial Times, and The Guardian.

The process is fairly sophisticated:

• Users see what looks like a legitimate news story.
• The ad redirects them to a cloned news website.
• The article promotes fake AI investment platforms.
• Fake testimonials, profit screenshots, and fabricated success stories are used to build trust.
• Visitors are then encouraged to submit their contact information to be contacted by a "personal advisor."

Some campaigns reportedly even used AI-generated news presenters and deepfake-style videos to make the content appear more credible.

One thing I noticed is that the scammers are not relying on low-quality landing pages anymore. They are investing significant effort into making the entire funnel look legitimate, from the ad creative to the fake news websites.

For marketers, this creates another challenge because users may become increasingly skeptical of both ads and genuine recommendations posted online.

It also shows how quickly AI is being adopted by bad actors to improve social engineering campaigns.

I just want to know, what others think. Have you noticed an increase in fake AI investment ads or impersonation campaigns on Reddit recently, or is this the first time you're hearing about this tactic?

There are thousands ways ads are used to scam. But this forum is not about scammers and scams. Such discussions are futile. This forum is all about making money in legitimate ways.

I have noticed the same trend. The scams are not necessarily new, but the quality has improved dramatically. With AI-generated content, cloned news sites, and realistic videos, it's becoming much harder for the average user to spot the red flags.

I agree that scammers are getting much better at making their campaign look legitimate with AI-content. It is difficult for user to say which post is real or which is fake.

To be honest this does not surprise me. The quality of scams has improved a lot over the last few years, and AI is making it even easier to create convincing content, fake testimonials, and realistic looking websites. I have also noticed that many fake ads no longer look obviously suspicious at first glance. It definitely makes it more important to verify sources and be cautious before trusting investment related content, even when it appears to come from well known brands.

I also noticed that scammers are getting more active in last few years they make their post legitimate and real with the help of AI bots. It is very confusing for users to whom they trust or to whom they don't.

I almost got baited by one a few months ago because the whole thing looked clean af, from the article layout to the fake comment section, which is kinda scary

The fake news website part caught my attention. I normally think of scam ads as just ads, so I didn’t expect them to use a full fake article around it too. That makes the whole approach quite different from the usual scam ads.

This is becoming a real concern—AI makes these scams look far more convincing than the usual fake ads.

I didn’t expect them to use trusted news names for this. I think people may click more easily when they see BBC or Financial Times, and only realize later that the link is taking them somewhere else.

ads have used for shady stuff in many different ways already but i dont think there is much value in going deep into scam tactics here this place is more about legit ways to make money and grow online