The claim
A picture shows the arrest of the Swiss Federal Councilor and current Federal President Alain Berset: "Thousands flock to the ATMs after Berset's arrest"
Our conclusion
The picture is a fake, the supposed news report is incorrect and the link leads to a fraudulent Bitcoin rip-off website
Last week, many major Swiss news portals displayed advertisements depicting a supposed news story: "Thousands flock to ATMs after Berset's arrest." This report is incorrect, the picture was faked and the advertising link led to a fake page in the SRF layout. Attentive users of these portals, such as the actor Mike Müller, quickly noticed that something was wrong:
By loading the tweet, you accept Twitter's privacy policy.
Learn more
When clicked: Bitcoin rip-off
The advertising was placed via Google Ads, easily recognizable by the typical buttons at the top right of the image. The link led to a website where the SRF (Swiss Radio and Television) website was recreated in a deceptively realistic manner:
___STEADY_PAYWALL___
Such fake sites and deceptive advertisements have been a problem for quite a while. reported on this several times in the past . The Swiss news portals have also noticed it for some time. But you can't or don't want to get by without the advertising revenue from Google Ads and Co. At 20 Minutes, the problem has been known at least since 2019, as the news site noted in November 2021 on the sidelines of a report about a victim of this scam:
This fraudulent, misleading advertising appears in the same layout as an article on 20min.ch. Like other regular advertising, it comes in via a programmatic, fully automated channel at 20 minutes. If we discover such a fake advertisement on the website, we will block the sender immediately.
Marco Gasser, then head of advertising sales at 20 Minuten
News sites can only protect themselves to a limited extent against such fake advertising
At 20 Minutes, Tamedia security software and “attentive operational units” were previously used, but “dubious advertising” could still slip through from time to time, as Christian Arm , Director of Commercial Products at Tamedia, admitted. The Swiss Crime Prevention (SKP) also reached its limits: The fraudsters are very clever at covering their tracks online. IP addresses are disguised via proxy servers, for example. The traces lead abroad, the proceedings would therefore be discontinued.
Today 20 Minutes uses systems from Goldbach. But the problems remain : “We do everything possible to avoid such ads,” explains Roland Rothenbühler, Head of Programmatic at the advertising broker. Goldbach uses blocklists and so-called protection rules for this purpose. But fraudsters still manage to overcome these barriers. The Berset advertising was displayed via Google Ads, where “the protection rules set apparently did not apply”. Google has been informed.
Google itself does a lot to detect abusive ads and uses a multi-stage process : automated filters,
filtering in (near) real time, manual detection, research and botnet hunting, and finally the suspension and deactivation of accounts. However, the team of reviewers who look at the ads live are only used once the ad has been reported. By the way, the easiest way to do this is to use the icon to the left of the blue X in the advertising image. But even with such a procedure, something can always slip through.
By loading the video, you accept YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
However, negative word lists and blocking certain web addresses are far from enough. The blocking of words can be avoided, for example, through “visual spoofing”, i.e. homographic obscuring. For example, it works like this: The “R” in the Cyrillic alphabet looks like the Latin letter, but has its own Unicode. And Cyrillic is just one of many writing systems. The ability to recreate words is almost limitless.
“Arrest” and trip to Africa by Alain Berset
A Google search quickly confirms that Alain Berset's arrest can only be clickbait. The Swiss politician and Federal Councilor will hold the office of Federal President in 2023 and traveled to Africa in this role on February 6th. The program included state visits to Botswana and Mozambique . The ads appeared on February 8 while Berset was traveling with President Filipe Nyusi in Mozambique. Here are a few impressions of the visit on Twitter:
By loading the tweet, you accept Twitter's privacy policy.
Learn more
In mid-January, Alain Berset was already in the headlines “Corona leaks” His former spokesman is said to have forwarded emails with confidential content to the media. The accusation is that the leak was intended to influence the Federal Council in its Corona decisions. However, the Federal Council expressed its confidence in Berset. He in turn promised to cooperate fully with the investigative authorities. An arrest in the middle of his function as Federal President? Unlikely.
A fake arrest and a real one
Berset was not the only victim of fake news reports via Google Ads. There was also a version with Markus Lanz that was shown to users in Germany, for example on the Der Spiegel magazine website:
By loading the tweet, you accept Twitter's privacy policy.
Learn more
Where did the picture in which the heads of Alain Berset and Markus Lanz were mounted actually come from? You can quickly find what you are looking for using a reverse image search. The real person in the picture is the alleged terror leader and Reich citizen Heinrich XIII. Prince Reuss. The picture comes from his arrest on December 7th in Frankfurt am Main:
By loading the video, you accept YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
Conclusion: The picture is a fake, the supposed news report is incorrect and the link leads to a fraudulent Bitcoin rip-off website. The actual person in the picture is a Reich citizen suspected of terrorism. On the day the advertising was placed via Google Ads, Alain Berset was on a state visit to Mozambique.
Sources: 20min.ch , blick.ch , nau.ch , admin.ch , persoenlich.com , srf.ch , Google Ads , YouTube, Twitter
Current fact checks:
Bill Gates did not invent computer viruses so he could sell antivirus software
No home expropriation due to the EU “Fit for 55” program
COVID-19 vaccines do not cause AIDS!
Note: This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication
.
The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic.