Scammers using Mike Hosking screenshots to lure people on Twitter

Scammers are creating burner Twitter accounts and using screenshots of Mike Hosking to trick people into falling for crypto currency scams.

Numerous fake accounts have been created on Twitter over the past few days and the tweets have been showing up on people's timelines as "promoted".

A few of the tweets claim to direct users to something that was said to be "live, while the microphone was still on".

Instead, users who click on the link are directed to a scam page.

The scammers are using different screenshots of videos featuring Newstalk ZB broadcaster Hosking.

Burner accounts linked to these scams include @appfinance2, @alistai26176706, @danielcrank9 and other random word and number combinations.

New Zealand Twitter users are reportedly seeing several of these fake accounts on their timelines.

In at least some of those instances, the short link directs users to a fake NZ Herald page.

The scam sends users to a fake NZ Herald page.

The broadcaster's image is being used without his knowledge or consent.

Twitter users are urged not to click through on any of the links if they can't recognise it as a reputable source.

Users should also report the accounts to Twitter.

The crypto currency scam is "most certainly not new and has been running for over a year", NZME's information security manager Patrick Blampied said.

"We continue to take down the offending scam website but it comes back under new domains."

Blampied said this scam is quite elaborate, with fake crypto exchanges often set up on the back of the scams, which is where scammers make their money.

"The social media bait used to lure people to the crypto currency scam has taken a slightly different approach in this new round in that branding and company logos are not being used, so as to evade takedown notices under copyright breach. Only the familiar landing page has copyright breaches," Blampied explained.

He says we're "clearly" seeing a return of brand abuse by these scammers, which had slowed down as the Covid-19 pandemic took off.

"We have 'takedown' proceedings underway for the known domains hosting this scam," he added.

Scammers are using Mike Hosking's face on Twitter. Photo / Twitter

This is not the first time Hosking's image has been used by scammers.

In September last year, the Newstalk ZB broadcaster took his concerns about fake ads to Facebook's New Zealand boss.

Shortly after being used in numerous fake news scams, Hosking told his listeners in September that he was the subject of a common bitcoin scam as well, which attempted to convince unsuspecting social media users to invest in questionable online schemes.

Facebook at the time told Hosking it had removed all pages and posts associated with the scam.

The scammers typically use images of well known New Zealanders to try to trick the public.

Other individuals to have featured in such schemes include richlister Graeme Hart, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.