The linked story opens with a declare that CBC acquired a cease-and-desist order from Canadian banks demanding that the broadcaster pull an investigative report. It provides that CBC refused, and Balsillie agreed to go on digital camera with journalist Mark Kelley. It claims that greater than 40,000 Canadians had signed up to a brand new funding platform delivering month-to-month returns of $4,200 on a $350 deposit.
Additional down within the article, Kelley purportedly interviews Balsillie, who is quoted lauding the “actual revenue” his shoppers have earned by the “AI-powered funding platform.”
The story is illustrated with photographs of somebody resembling Balsillie and one other man who readers are led to imagine is CBC reporter Kelley.
THE FACTS
Balsillie, who is chairman of the Centre for Worldwide Governance Innovation, mentioned he first discovered in regards to the article and his supposed CBC interview when The Canadian Press contacted him. He mentioned he is not concerned in any cryptocurrency platform.
A reverse picture search exhibits that the particular person pictured who is supposed to be investigative reporter Mark Kelley is truly U.S. Senator Mark Kelly. The story has what seem to be hyperlinks to different reporting however none of them work. The one dwell hyperlink is one which goes to the funding bot.
In an emailed assertion, CBC mentioned the article is only one instance of the “alarming rise” in fake tales and advertisements on-line, which pose a danger to public belief in established media shops.
The broadcaster mentioned it stays dedicated to preventing disinformation. “This is an more and more troublesome job nevertheless, hindered by the rise in AI-generated disinformation and the prevalence of fake advertisements discovered on social media platforms,” it mentioned.
A company known as the Area Hole, with 93 followers and claiming to have between two and 10 staff, shared the hyperlink in a LinkedIn submit on Aug. 17. It describes itself as a “self-owned” group that publishes weblog posts.
After The Canadian Press requested LinkedIn for remark in regards to the Area Hole account and the submit, the account disappeared. LinkedIn has not responded to the request for remark.
In an interview final week, Balsillie denounced what he known as a violation of his rights and people of unsuspecting on-line customers.
“This new digital realm has discovered novel methods to violate these rights,” he mentioned. People who find themselves being defrauded “don’t know in the event that they’re coping with one thing that’s actual or not, and so they can’t inform,” he added. “My proper to my identification is additionally being violated.”
Whereas this explicit declare seems solely within the LinkedIn submit, it is one other instance of how the manufacturers of established information media, together with the CBC, are utilized in fabricated tales geared toward tricking unsuspecting on-line customers into giving up their private data and cash.
Jeff Horncastle, the outreach officer with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, mentioned scammers steadily use recognizable information organizations or a reputable media determine as covers to extract cash from unsuspecting on-line customers.
They know Canadians are extra seemingly to have interaction with content material that comes from what appears to be like like a good media supply, he mentioned. “By combining these names with an expert wanting article or video, they’ll take away a number of the skepticism that folks usually have in direction of an unsolicited funding alternative.”
Horncastle mentioned that between 2021, when cryptocurrency started to acquire traction, and June 2026 there have been about $1.6 billion in reported funding fraud losses in Canada, and annual losses continue to grow — to $351 million in 2025 from $164 million in 2021.
He advises anyone who comes throughout a probably fraudulent information story to confirm whether or not the story exists on the information outlet’s precise web site. He provides that on-line customers ought to be suspicious of any endorsements from recognizable media figures and of statements promising excessive returns on investments.
For Balsillie, who is funding analysis on AI’s influence and is pushing for higher regulation, there wants to be a broader method to defending rights. He mentioned governments ought to embrace ideas equivalent to freedom from management over one’s likeness, freedom from incursions of the non-public sphere and freedom from systemic corruption of information.
“These are human rights, and so they’ve received to be codified,” he mentioned, including: “Whenever you don’t listen to these things, you trigger lots of hurt.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Aug. 26, 2026.
Timon Johnson, The Canadian Press
