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Kochie to take action on fake ads

"It's damaging my brand," former Sunrise host says of the constant fake ads using his image.

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EXCLUSIVE: 

Former Sunrise host David Koch is taking legal action over fake ads which repeatedly use his likeness and name to sell products or scam unsuspecting users.

“I’m involved in an action with the ACCC that will come to light soon. And I’m looking at taking other action against platforms in the near future,” he recently told TV Tonight.

“I got an email yesterday from a lady who invested $10,000 in one of these fake ads. She’s 72 and the ad came on her Holy Bible app. I never knew there was a Holy Bible app but I shouldn’t be surprised, there’s an app for everything. She got sucked in with one of these fake ads on the Holy Bible. It’s getting frickin’ ridiculous.”

He took to social media yesterday over the latest fake ad, tagging the ACCC in the process.

But Kochie is also frustrated at how long the process is taking.

“I’m looking at other measures now because that’s taking so long, because it’s damaging my brand.”

17 Responses

  1. David the ad where he is being dragged away by police (Richard Wilkins ads as well) have appeared on this site too (the ads you scroll over in the middle of the page). I have seen both recently. On other sites Natalie Barr ads are starting to be more common.

    1. I do what I can to remove them as soon as I am aware of them. Again it is like Whack-a-mole. And again it is also dependent on the other sites you have been to and where you live. It’s a bit like how we all get scam calls, they are the scourge and policing rests at the top not the bottom. Trust me even reporting on this is tricky, because the algorithms will see key words and may even put an ad here as a result of discussing it!

    1. The Eddie Maguire ones have started up again recently, had one today actually along with a Kochie one, Eddie’s was along the lines of the dark truth as to he’s not doing Hot Seat next year. I suspect the Kochie ones have started relentlessly again with him leaving Sunrise and Port Adelaide being in the AFL finals, they obviously know when best to target, I close them and hit report to Google.

  3. That kind of rubbish is everywhere…I was reading the Yorkshire Times only yesterday and a picture of Richard Wilkinson was on it with his arms held behind his back with two police officers and the caption “This is why he has lost his credibility”..and in small print the name of the website to tap on to redirect…all I could think of was how low can these buggers go when using peoples photos and scam people…but scammers lack morals or a conscience anyway.

      1. It was the Yorkshire Times because I was looking up Lodges in Yorkshire and was directed to Bookings.Com…travel solutions by Telegraph Media….then to the website of a particular holiday lodge.. besides I do not sign into Google..I have search settings and history turned off…in Google…I even got a message to sign into Yorkshire Times.co.uk using my Google account but I do not sign into that pop up either….admittedly it was a round about way but that is where it started….I’ve also just checked my Safari history it is still in history when I looked it up last night…. Go figure is all I can say on that quandary.

        1. Yes but you’re not grasping the point. It’s not the fault of Yorkshire Times. They don’t choose to put the ad there. It’s a Google ad and it recognises you are viewing from Australia so it puts an ad there. If someone in Japan goes to the same site they would see a different ad directed to Japanese customers. In London users will see different ads again.

          1. David…I understand what you are getting at…it happens when I use Bing too…even though you turn you settings off etc..websites people use are subjected to them and it’s not the fault of Yorkshire Times or other websites …my point is no matter where you look on various websites you are subjected to unscrupulous advertising by scammers like another I recently visited where there was an add “ Invest in this because Elon or Gayle King does…”. and even worse that was using AI to manipulate their voices in the video…it’s not acceptable and the government should put more measures in place to put the clappers on it….Jimmy Barnes has recently done the same as Kochie’s disclaimer on his website unfortunately.

  4. This is ridiculous. There should be some legislation or something in place to deal with this.

    The UK financial journalist, Martin Lewis had this problem as well.

    Something has got to be done when some people can’t even do their jobs or professions because of it. It’s pretty serious, it’s not like a competing shop down the street with standard trading and fair market conditions.

  5. I’ve seen these popping up on various web sites lately like with Richard Wilkins a while ago. Don’t know why they think they can get away with it.

    1. They think they can get away with it because they can and have for a decade. Online advertising is cheap because it’s automated and anyone can buy space for ads and the system places it where ever. People can complain and get that ad taken down but 100 more take it’s place. Albanese is trying to ban false information from the internet but his approach will end up banning and suppressing a lot of legitimate journalism along with it as the Human Rights Commission has pointed out. His plan for age checks ran in to the obvious problems and has been dropped.

      1. This does affect television media as well. There’s misinformation, then there’s also information that is wrongly described as misinformation, as well as obfuscated research. Statistics can be given to make it appear as though it is legitimate, however, there can also be manipulation of statistics and information for political purposes, as I’ve seen in the past on particular issues. For example, important or critical information can be omitted that changes the perception in an incorrect way. It shouldn’t be like that.

  6. I saw the one where he was being dragged away by police and arrested on this website and Sydney Morning Herald. Someone’s got a lot of money to spend.

    1. I know. It’s incredibly frustrating and like Whack-a-Mole. As soon as you remove they find another way to come back. I apologised to him for any that have shown here, but it needs to be addressed by Google and ACCC not a small site like here.

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