Fake CBC ads have flooded X with sketchy headlines. We looked for the source
Sensational headlines about Poilievre, Singh, promote digital trading scheme, spoof legitimate businesses
Ads featuring fake CBC articles have inundated the social media platform X in recent weeks. The ads are designed to lure Canadians into a sophisticated scam that uses Russian internet infrastructure, CBC News has found.
CBC News' visual investigations unit has investigated both the internet infrastructure behind the ads — leading from a Barrie, Ont., provider, to the Netherlands, to Russia — as well as the spoofed accounts from local businesses sharing the ads.
Dozens of accounts on X, formerly Twitter, have shared the ads, which often feature sensationalist headlines focusing on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre or NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
If a user clicks on the Poilievre ad, for example, they are brought to a fake CBC-style article that features a fake transcript of an interview between the Conservative leader and Guy A. Lepage, the host of the Radio-Canada program Tout le monde en parle.
In the transcript posted in the article, Poilievre explains how he used a platform called "Quantum AI pro" to build wealth.
"If you don't believe me, give me 300 Canadian dollars, and I'll make you a million in 3-4 months!" Poilievre says in the fictitious article.
Australian man lost more than $72,000
The Quantum AI page tells visitors how bitcoin can make them rich, and contains a section explaining that it is not a scam. Registering brings users to yet another page, where they are prompted to contact a customer support worker to deposit money.
Fake advertisements featuring "Quantum AI," or similar variations, have been spotted in Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom. They often use high-profile celebrities, politicians, or media figures in fake ads.
In one instance, an Australian man lost more than $72,000 on a similar scheme, according to that country's competition regulator. Police in Hamilton, Ont., also warned about Quantum AI in 2023, calling it an "investment scam." The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, meanwhile, has warned Canadians about Quantum AI "fraudsters."
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said in a statement that the majority of investment scam reports involve a cryptocurrency scheme that originates in an online advertisement.
Complex internet infrastructure starts with this address in Barrie, Ont.
CBC News looked into the internet infrastructure behind the fake ads. Two websites that host the fake CBC-style articles have an IP address registered to an internet provider, Velcom, in Barrie, Ont.
Asked for comment, the CEO for Velcom said the company didn't know about the scam and no longer uses its IP addresses for telecommunications, but instead leases them to different businesses via an intermediary, a Texas-based company called IPXO.
IPXO didn't respond to CBC News' request for comment by deadline.
The server hosting the site is in the Netherlands — though until October, it was based in the Moscow area. The website's name server still traces back to St. Petersburg, Russia. This doesn't necessarily mean the scammers are Russian.
'Why us?' Legitimate business accounts spoofed
CBC News also investigated the accounts that were sharing the fake CBC-style advertisements. At first glance, they appear to be accounts owned by small businesses in the U.S. and the U.K. However, several businesses contacted by CBC News said that they were being impersonated.
For example, an X account claiming to be Gunter Creative, a graphic design company based near Houston shared the ad. But, reached by CBC News, the company confirmed they have no real Twitter or X account. One of the owners has an account under a different username, but the couple — Jenny and J.D. Gunter — told CBC News that it's rarely used, and not to promote their business.
"[We thought] is this for real?" J.D. Gunter said in an interview.
"And why us?" said Jenny Gunter. "It's not like we have a lot of followers or are famous. I don't understand why they don't just create something totally out of the blue, why do they have to steal someone's real stuff?"
"The word that came to my mind for possible explanations is legitimacy," J.D. said, noting that the impersonated account had linked to their real website. "If somebody clicks on that, they go and can see a picture of us. I guess we just save them a lot of time trying to look legitimate."
Previous instances of cryptocurrency scams on X have relied on masses of hacked accounts that were created years ago. But in what appears to be a new wrinkle, the vast majority of the accounts sharing the ad seen by CBC News were created in January 2025 and impersonate real businesses.
X does have a function for users to report accounts for impersonation. The Gunters said they have reported the account mimicking their business, and it was suspended on Friday.
The accounts sharing the ad were all subscribed to X Premium, meaning that on top of any revenue made through the advertisements themselves, each fake account is also paying X at least $8.75 per month — potentially hundreds of dollars each month, just for those ads seen by CBC News.
X did not respond to a request for comment from CBC News.
With files from Jordan Pearson and Paul Hantiuk