In brief
- French soccer player Kylian Mbappé has filed a complaint with local police.
- Mbappé claims that his name and image were used to promote a crypto scam.
- In the past, scammers have impersonated Mbappé to steal Bitcoin.
Famous French soccer player and Paris Saint-Germain’s forward Kylian Mbappé has turned to the local police on March 31, claiming that his name and image were unlawfully used to promote a cryptocurrency scam.
According to newspaper L’Équipe, Mbappé’s persona was used in an article titled “The latest investment by Kylian Mbappé put experts under pressure and frightened big banks,” which started to circulate around the Internet in early March and was posted on several streaming sites.
The alleged scam article was reportedly promoting a “miracle” cryptocurrency investment scheme that could supposedly turn naive investors into millionaires in a matter of months. Per the article, Mbappé said that he gave no consent and found out about this only recently, after which he contacted the police.
This is not the first time crypto-related scammers have tried to use Mbappé’s name to steal users’ money. Last July, the soccer star’s Twitter account was supposedly hacked and offered its audience “shoutouts”—for a “small fee” of €200 in Bitcoin.
The message was retweeted hundreds of times in the span of about an hour while it was up. Shortly after, the tweet was deleted and users were notified that Mbappé’s account was back in his hands.
“Account recovered. Sorry for the inconvenience and have a nice evening,” wrote Mbappé at that time.
Apparently, crypto scammers will stop at nothing trying to steal your Bitcoin, including impersonation of famous people and global organizations.
As Decrypt reported on March 19, some malicious actors even tried to use the coronavirus outbreak for their shady purposes, asking people to donate cryptocurrencies under the guise of the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Don’t these scammers have any morals?
