Photo: An advertisement displayed on Canadian YouTube Aug. 26. illustrating P.M. Mark Carney handcuffed and being arrested by uniformed police. Rural Alberta Report/Screenshot

Ad is probably ‘clickbait’ claiming to be CBC ‘news story’

An advertisement shown to Canadian users of Google’s popular YouTube app uses a misleading and false photograph to lead users to a possibly fraudulent website.

On Aug. 26 the Rural Alberta Report contacted YouTube with concerns about an advertisement showing Prime Minister Mark Carney handcuffed and being led away by two uniformed police officers. The extremely realistic image was printed along with the statements, “Everyone is asking what happened to him. What really happened in that moment? The truth is finally coming out,” featuring a CBC News logo and which was labelled “Sponsored.”

“Sponsored” is YouTube’s way of noting the image you looked at was actually a paid advertisement; it was noted that the advertisement was placed by “architectblitz.”

Accompanying the ad was a link giving viewers the opportunity to “See more.” When clicked Aug. 26 the image led to a website announcing a new Government of Canada investment program, with, again, the CBC logo at the top of the page. However, by Aug. 27 the link was a dead end and the page was gone.

A search of CBC’s website Aug. 27 for the topic “Mark Carney announces new investment program” revealed only normal CBC news stories about the Prime Minister’s activities and no stories about new investment opportunities for Canadians through the federal government.

It should also be noted the Rural Alberta Report spent considerable time Aug. 27 searching the internet for any evidence Prime Minister Carney had been arrested; there was no evidence Carney had been arrested and over Aug. 26 and 27 the prime minister was actually in Europe visiting Canadian troops.

The entire exercise may very well have been fraudulent; the controversial false photo of Carney in handcuffs is what’s referred to in internet jargon as “clickbait.” The term is defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as “...something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest.”

The fact the phony Carney photo led to an investment opportunity should be a major red flag; unsolicited requests for your money should be treated very carefully, especially on the internet. The Rural Alberta Report also spent much time searching the internet Aug. 27 looking for any evidence the Canadian government was encouraging citizens to invest in a certain program and found nothing.

The Rural Alberta report wasn’t the only organization concerned about the fake Carney arrest and investment program; the Government of Saskatchewan actually has a warning on their website about this scam.

“The Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan (FCAA) warns investors in Saskatchewan of an impersonation scam on social media using fake news articles claiming that Prime Minister Mark Carney is endorsing the trading platform Canfirst.

"Do not make investment decisions solely due to a notable figure endorsement," FCAA Securities Division Executive Director Dean Murrison said. "Scammers can create fraudulent news articles that imitate the real media source.”

Interestingly, Google, which is owned by the same company as YouTube, actually admits that its sister company profits off scam advertising.

When the Rural Alberta Report typed the following question into Google’s search engine, “Does Youtube profit off scam advertisements?” the following response from Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) came up:

“Yes, YouTube does profit from scam ads, but not intentionally or willingly; they profit through their ad auction system, and while they have policies against scam ads, they are not always effective at preventing them from being shown and generating revenue before being removed.”