It never ends. Ads on Facebook play a scene from the show Lion's Den.

A supposedly scandalous deal, a small chip, the logo of which was slightly changed using a photo editing program, and at the same time two actors from the show “Lion's Den”. These and very similar advertisements and status messages on Facebook unsettle many users.

By the way, you can now find a lot of content like this on Facebook. What can be said clearly: The creators of the show or the protagonists of the show have absolutely nothing to do with this type of Facebook content. The name of the show and the familiar faces are being misused by unknown third parties. But what is behind it? Can you really believe what is written there? Or is there something completely different behind this and the very similar content?

Screenshot Mimikama.at
Screenshot Mimikama.at

And it is actually true that behind these status reports there is fake news. This isn't the first time we've explained this, so at this point we'll repeat what's behind these status messages, which can often also be found as sponsored ads on Facebook.

It is commercial fake news. After clicking on the teaser on Facebook, a website opens that presents itself in the form of a newspaper report. The website displayed is a pseudo-editorial article that is only intended to entice readers to click on the built-in advertising links.

We have now examined this type of teaser several times, which report on supposed scenes from the show “Lion's Den” and found that all the characteristics of “fabricated content” fake news apply here. We therefore repeat again:

  • Commercial fake news contains pseudo-editorial content that has no truth and does not have to have any truth. Likewise, the content does not have to be related to the headline.
  • They present themselves in the form of a news website, which ultimately isn't one.
  • The content speaks to a desire/fear (in this case just desire).
  • The author doesn't care about the content, it's about displaying advertising or effectively incorporating advertising links

Looked:

The website itself has no imprint, no data protection information or other characteristics of origin. The article on the website is about presenting a product as effectively as possible. A Bitcoin trading model is heavily promoted in the text, but also next to it and below it. In the end, this also includes a large number of supposed user comments that report on how successful this model is. What looks like a high level of positive interaction is nothing more than part of the advertising scam.

Screenshot Mimikama.at
Screenshot Mimikama.at

If you follow the product links that are built into the pseudo-editorial text on the website, you will end up in an affiliate sales program. In the end there is a dubious Bitcoin trading method. This means whoever wrote the pseudo-editorial article is likely to have an interest in getting readers to sign up for this model. It is important that the fake story sounds as credible as possible in advance, but at the same time also has a high potential for virality.

Finally

It's not like Facebook or the show's creators don't know about this, because this type of misleading content has been around for weeks. This content is also shown to many Facebook users. But based on observation from Facebook, nothing seems to be happening here.


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Notes:
1) 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. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )