Kim Jong-in and Joo Jin-hyung Stock Investment Recommendations? ... Fake Ads Crossing the Line

Fraudulent Ads Using Celebrity Trust
Dr. Kang Jeong-su Urges SNS Companies to Take Active Measures
"Losing Money to Deception Causes Serious Harm"

Recently, fake advertisements featuring well-known figures such as former People Power Party emergency committee chairman Kim Jong-in and former Hanwha Investment & Securities CEO Joo Jin-hyung have been rampant on social networking services (SNS) like Facebook. These ads impersonate celebrities to encourage stock investments.

Dr. Kang Jeong-su, a digital media expert, emphasizes that SNS companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) must actively step up and devise countermeasures.

Dr. Kang shared that he recently encountered an investment consultation advertisement impersonating former CEO Joo on SNS. On June 11, during YTN Radio's 'Wise Radio Life,' he said, "I recently saw something like 'How former CEO Joo earned 500 billion won.' I don’t even know how he earned 500 billion won, and he’s not the type to boast about such things, so I wondered why such an ad was made. When I clicked, it connected to an investment consultation."

These impersonation ads use the image of celebrities to deceive investors. Dr. Kang said, "Since these are famous people with good social reputations and some investment achievements, those who have never been deceived before are very likely to click on such ads. Manipulated ads are rampant on SNS, and if people fall for these tricks and lose money, they could suffer significant damage."

Dr. Kang suspects that these manipulated ads are operated not by individuals but by organizations. He analyzed, "They keep producing famous people in a similar pattern, like mass-producing fish-shaped bread in a factory. It can be assessed that someone is producing them identically. It appears that criminal groups are organizing these systematically and executing hit-and-run operations in a short period."

A recent advertisement impersonating Kim Jong-in, former Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, posted on social media. [Image source=Facebook of Kim Kyung-jin, former People Power Party lawmaker]

Former chairman Kim and former CEO Joo, who have been victims of such impersonation ads, have announced plans to report to the police. However, Dr. Kang pointed out that even if reported, the procedures take a long time and are ineffective.

Dr. Kang explained, "In court rulings, the damage must be clearly proven to legally request information from Meta, but it is not easy to find victims and confirm the damage. Even if there is suspicion and manipulated ads, companies do not readily provide personal information. It takes a long time to secure victims’ damage facts and get a court ruling to make such requests, so reporting to the police is very ineffective."

He warned that advertisements impersonating celebrities will continue to be created. Dr. Kang said, "When a complaint is filed, they delete ads featuring former chairman Kim, former CEO Joo, and then continue impersonating other celebrities. Therefore, such impersonation ads should be banned altogether, but since it is impossible to verify each one, victims are increasing. SNS companies should temporarily ban advertisements featuring these celebrities."

Dr. Kang criticized, "The biggest problem is that Meta is not actively addressing this issue. These ads have similar patterns, such as placing books forward or similar phrases, so by studying these patterns, ads could be blocked in advance. However, since they are currently profiting from these ads, their response is slow."