Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Anant Ambani endorses “get-rich-quick” crypto trading platform during multiple interviews, as reported by BBC.
Fact
Viral reports in the name of BBC are found to be fake, links lead to dubious websites.
Multiple reports purportedly published by BBC stating that Anant Ambani, youngest son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, is in the centre of a controversy after he endorsed a “get-rich-quick” crypto trading platform during an interview, have gone viral on social media.
The headlines of the “BBC” reports read, “CNBC-TV18 management refuses to comment on the scandal surrounding its interview ‘Vantara (Star of the Forest)’”, and, “Bank of India sues Anant Ambani for his remarks on live television TV shows”. The articles can be found here and here.
Fact Check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “CNBC-TV18 management scandal Bank of India BBC Anant Ambani”, which did not throw up any such reports. We also looked up the reports on the BBC’s website, which also did not throw up any relevant results.
We then noticed that the URLs of both the viral articles are different from the official BBC website, indicating that the reports are likely from dubious websites.
Also, the reports stated that the viral incident happened during interviews with News18’s Anand Narasimhan and content creator Sharan Hegde, following which we ran a relevant keyword search that did not lead us to any such interview where Ambani spoke about crypto trading platforms.
Newschecker then ran the links to the trading platforms, “Everix Edge”, and “Immediate 7X Alrex”, allegedly endorsed by Anant Ambani, past Scam Detector, a major online fraud prevention resource.
The detector stated that the “Everix Edge website” is “Questionable. Minimal Doubts. Controversial.,” giving it a medium trust score. “The algorithm detected possible high-risk activity related to phishing, spamming, and other factors…,” read the review.
The detector stated that the “Immediate 7X Alrex” website is “Untrustworthy. Risky. Danger.,” giving it one of the lowest trust scores on the platform. “The algorithm detected high-risk activity related to phishing, spamming, and other factors …,” read the review, confirming both the websites to be suspicious.
A further search also led us to this BBC report, dated April 25, 2024, written by Jane Wakefield, the technology reporter who purportedly wrote the viral reports, on how fraudsters are getting fake articles onto Facebook.
Wakefield calls out the multiple fake articles and interviews, using her byline, of celebrities endorsing cryptocurrency schemes, stating, “There has been a common theme to these stories, and it is all about how each celebrity made vast sums of money from an online investment opportunity in crypto currencies. And if this all sounds a bit unbelievable, that’s because it is – I hadn’t done a single one of these interviews, nor written any of the articles. And none of the famous people involved, or me, would dream of endorsing crypto investments of any kind. Instead, the fake stories were all AI-generated scams that appeared on Facebook news feeds in a BBC template, and with my byline. The fraudsters behind them hope that people will click through to the full article, and from there be tempted to invest in a fake investment scheme being promoted on the page.” We can clearly see that the Anant Ambani “report”, too, follows the same template.
Business moguls Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Nandan Nilekani, NR Narayana Murty and actor Kriti Sanon have all been the subjects of similar fake reports and interviews, intended to mislead people into investing in dubious cryptocurrency schemes. These articles have been debunked by Newschecker, seen here and here.
Also Read: Viral Exit Poll Graphic Predicting A Clean Sweep For NDA In Andhra Assembly Elections Is Edited
Conclusion
Anant Ambani did not endorse a crypto trading platform, viral links and BBC reports found to be fake.
Result: False
Source
Scam Detector review
BBC report, April 25, 2024
If you would like us to fact-check a claim, give feedback or lodge a complaint, WhatsApp us at 9999499044 or email us at checkthis@newschecker.in. You can also visit the Contact Us page and fill out the form. Follow our WhatsApp channel for more updates
Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
