Scammers are suddenly picking on all of these Canadian TV hosts
Mary Berg is many things — MasterChef Canada winner, beloved celebrity chef, host of CTV's The Good Stuff — but now she can add "unwilling star of a crypto scam" to her resume.
What happened: All month, X users have been bombarded with ads about a fake scandal involving Berg. There are a few different versions: Some show Berg crying, while others use edited photos of her in a courtroom or handcuffs. All of them appear with a fake CTV News headline alluding to "on-air comments" ending Berg's career.
Why it matters: The ongoing stream of ads exemplifies the state of moderation on X. Even though the ads have become a weeks-long joke among Canadian users, and CTV parent company Bell Media is actively reporting them, only a few of the dozens of accounts pushing them have been suspended.
Zoom out: It's still unclear why the scammers are targeting Canadians. But the vibe of these ads is similar to the "chumbox" of links on some news sites, where headlines about a celebrity scandal appear between weight loss tricks and things doctors don't want you to know.
Daytime TV hosts are frequently exploited for their squeaky-clean images (which make a scandal more surprising) and their popularity with older people (who tend to be more frequent scam targets).
Get smarter about what matters. Sign up for The Peak, a free five-minute daily email on Canadian business, tech, and finance that you'll actually enjoy reading.
The Peak
Join the conversation Load comments