IRISH ECONOMIST DAVID McWilliams has warned that advertisements on social media platforms for “get rich quick schemes” centred around crypto currency investments featuring him are not real. 

McWilliams, speaking on RTÉ Radio 1, said that over the summer “hundreds” of people have been in contact with him to say that they have seen the advertisements across social media. 

“It is an entire fake, it’s a criminal enterprise, it’s a fraud, and people are getting defrauded. Innocent people are getting frauded into this, [they are] saying, ‘Yes, we know David, if he’s done this, we may as well get involved in it,” McWilliams said today. 

He said that he has spoken to people who have paid €250 deposits for the scheme, and one woman who actually handed over her IBAN to a man over Whatsapp. 

McWilliams said that fraudulent advertisements like this are being “facilitated by the social media companies” because they are not removing the ads quickly enough, if they do remove them at all. 

Speaking on Liveline, McWilliams said that the people behind these scams “are clever”. 

“They are criminal. They will take your money and you will never see it again,” he said.

He added that sometimes the ads tell people that the investment opportunity is only available for 24 hours. 

McWilliams said that because it’s so easy to produce these ads in today’s world of artificial intelligence, 

Daniel O’Donnell, the famous country singer, has previously spoken out about scams that have targeted his fans on social media platforms

He had to come out and publicly say that he and his wife are not at “death’s door” after a spate of fake posts hit social media claiming that they were not “well” and that they were seeking donations. 

A nun was one of the victims of one of the online scams that used O’Donnells name. 

“I just can’t stress enough,” O’Donnell told ITV at the time, “don’t send money, I don’t need money, and any message asking for money is fake.”

In Ireland you can report scam advertisements to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). 

The ASA said that false celebrity ads usually claim a celebrity has made their money through cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and shows them encouraging other poeple to do the same.