Manipulated media of New Zealand PM used to promote fake 'forex trading' firm
- Published on April 16, 2024 at 10:24
- 4 min read
- By AFP Australia
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"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon hosted a meeting today in the government quarters with members of the Daily Pip Trade Board of Management to discuss the future of Daily Pip Trade in the country," read the opening sentence of a Facebook post published on March 9, 2024.
The post went on to claim Luxon "expressed his appreciation and support for the company's efforts to provide quality and reliable Investment services to the citizens of New Zealand, who are interested in Investing in forex trading as a source of income and investment."
According to the page that shared the post, Daily Pip Trade offered "forex trading" services.
But the photos in the posts do not show Luxon meeting with Daily Pip Trade executives.
They were originally shared by the New Zealand leader on Instagram and showed him and outgoing Indonesian president Joko Widodo meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Australia on March 5, 2024 (archived links here and here).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photos in the false post (left) and the original pictures shared by Luxon (right):
The post was one of several that attempted to link Luxon to Daily Pip Trade using misrepresented photos or manipulated videos. AFP found no evidence the firm or its platform existed.
Edited media
In another post in September 2023, the same account posted a clip of Luxon and suggested he hailed the firm as having helped "New Zealanders achieve their financial goals and dreams for many years".
"Daily Pip Trade has been making a positive impact on the lives of many New Zealand men and women who have benefited from their service," Luxon appeared to say in the clip.
Below is a screenshot of the false post:
But the original video -- shared by the New Zealand National Party on September 28, 2023 -- shows Luxon commenting on crime (archived link).
He can be heard saying a government jointly formed by New Zealand's Labour and Greens parties would be a "coalition of chaos".
Luxon -- at the time the leader of the opposition -- made no reference to Daily Pip Trade in his speech.
The Facebook account posted another altered video in December 2023 that used watermarked stock footage and a fake audio track.
The edited video -- which misleadingly included a logo for TVNZ's 1 News -- shows Luxon appearing to give a speech about the Daily Pip Trade from a lectern on a stage.
But the footage actually shows his National Party's 2023 campaign launch address (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and the original footage from 2023 (right):
Subtitles in the altered video also misspelt the prime minister's surname as "Laxon", as shown in the screenshot below with the error highlighted:
No evidence firm exists
Searches on New Zealand's Companies Register and Financial Services Register found no trace of the Daily Pip Trade (archived links here and here).
As of April 16, 2024, the website and phone number listed on its Facebook account was not accessible.
Daily Pip Trade was also listed under a UK address on Facebook. But a search of the UK's land registry linked the address to transport infrastructure projects, as shown below:
The latest Google Maps street imagery of the indicated address from April 2023 showed a site office for a train station upgrade project (archived links here and here).
A search on the website for the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, which all investment brokers must attain a license from, also produced no results (archived link):
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