Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has recently been ensnared in a sophisticated app promotion scam.
As a global football icon with five Ballon d’Or awards to his name, Ronaldo has achieved the pinnacle of the sport and earned admiration worldwide. Currently playing for Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, Ronaldo’s fame and influence have unfortunately made him a target for high-tech criminals who are now exploiting his image for fraudulent schemes.
“A single father from Lisbon has become a millionaire thanks to the mobile app of one of the world’s most famous football players, Cristiano Ronaldo,” was the catchy line of a recent video shared on Instagram with the aim of persuading social media users to click on a link that would supposedly allow them to win “one million euros a day.” The narrator, supposedly Isaura Quevedo, a journalist for CNN Portugal, says in the clip: “Three days ago, Miguel and his children were watching Cristiano Ronaldo’s new video and discovered the Plinko app, where the jackpot win rate has increased by 450%. And each new player is guaranteed to win one million euros a day.”
At this point in the video, several messages highlighting the benefits of the app begin to appear on the screen, including a supposed message from Cristiano Ronaldo himself. It is at this point that a male voice, allegedly from Ronaldo, assures that just 10 euros are enough to start winning: “If you have at least 10 euros on your card, you can win a million euros. This is a fantastic opportunity that you cannot miss.” Then, more encouraging messages appear: “The whole country is talking about Cristiano Ronaldo’s project. It’s unbelievable” or “I don’t regret spending 10 euros. I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw the jackpot on the third day of play.”
Isaura Quevedo then appears again, encouraging viewers to download the app via the link below to win prizes of up to one million euros per day. In reality, this is a scam created using deepfake tools and artificial intelligence. Although the synchronization of audio and image is not yet perfect, some victims have already fallen for the scam. As a result, when clicking on the link, their personal information is stolen and their bank accounts emptied. This caused a big problem for Ronaldo, with many believing that he was helping the criminals.
This isn’t the first time Ronaldo has been implicated in online fraud. Criminals have used artificial intelligence to recreate Ronaldo’s voice, asking potential targets for card numbers and passwords in fraudulent videos. They even invented a shocking story in which Ronaldo asked Lionel Messi for a loan, but was turned down by Messi’s wife, Antonela Roccuzzo.
Ronaldo finally spoke out about the incident: “It is very disturbing to see my image being used in this way to deceive innocent people. I want to warn all my fans and followers to be extremely cautious about these scams. I would never ask for personal information or money in this way. We need to be vigilant against these high-tech attacks and protect our data and our integrity.”
With this statement, Ronaldo hopes not only to clear his name, but also to alert his followers about the dangers of digital frauds that use public figures to legitimize criminal schemes.
