Over a long career, Dr Kruszelnicki, often referred to as Dr Karl, has built a reputation for trust and honesty, promoting knowledge of science and debunking misleading public claims."There's hundreds of people advertising this stuff with my name and face on different sites around the world," he said.Since late March, hundreds of ads featuring fake endorsements from Dr Karl for various health products have been published on Facebook and Instagram.
When the ABC investigated the companies behind the fake Dr Karl ads, it found a murky world of AI content, affiliated advertising, and elusive company directors with a string of companies to their names. with the byline of TV personality Karl Stefanovic, telling how Dr Karl endorsed the new health product.
But there's one public figure who scammers use far more than any other for fake endorsements targeting Australians.Fake celebrity endorsement featuring Andrew Forrest account for one per cent reports to IDCARE in the past year. Mr Forrest is battling Meta in court over scam ads bearing his image.One client reported a $700,000 financial loss for a scam that used Gina Rinehart's likeness.
Meta was failing to keep up with the scammers, Mark Andrejevic, a digital communications researcher from Monash University, said. "Even if a complaint is lodged about a particular ad on a particular page that ad may be taken down, but similar or identical ads are served from other pages right away," he said.A murky world of short-lived companies and elusive directors
He then searched for the product on Google, which took him to a website that deceptively claimed the pills were sold at Chemist Warehouse. The company listed on the website selling the pills, Premium Supplements, was registered in September 2023 in the Gold Coast, Queensland. "This is a matter of Dr Karl’s image being associated with a certain product and creating the impression he’s endorsing that product."
The ACCC referred the ABC to the regulator of medicines in Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration , which said it knew about the fake Dr Karl ads.As well as potentially breaching the ACL, the ads may also violate regulations around therapeutic claims.