(FAKE NEWS): Macron is trying to purchase votes of French people for a 100 euro

New fake news attack against Macron began on June 26 via fake media network affiliated with John Dougan, specially crafted website and RU Telegram channels known for fake news dissemination with attempt to spread the following message: "Macron is trying to purchase votes of French people for a 100 euro".

Origins:

For this campaign, specially crafted website ensemble-24[.]fr was created. It mimics the official pre-election website ensemble-2024.fr of political coalition "Ensemble", which includes Macron party "Renaissance".

Domain was registered on June 19 2024, registered by "Mora Deppen" and contact email is registered at proton mail, which is likely a fake identity.

The story is laundered via franceencolere[.]fr, one of the newer websites in fake media network affiliated with John Dougan.

Distribution:

Telegram:

In RU Telegram, it was posted by multiple channels that are often involved in disinformation campaigns:

https://t.me/sanya_florida/18254

https://t.me/radiostydoba/28429

https://t.me/golosmordora/38896

https://t.me/warhistoryalconafter/171061

Twitter/X:

Telegram posts also mention a tweet made by bot-like account

https://x.com/BlandineButteau/status/1805957194724086199

Attached screenshot also indicates that this website was also promoted via X ads:

Thanks to x.com/SourcesOuvertes finding, the ad was placed by the same account that was involved in sengager-ukraine[.]fr disinformation campaign earlier this year:

What's interesting, one of the ads placed in March by this account, was taken down after X agent review with stated reason "STATEMENT_CATEGORY_UNSAFE_AND_ILLEGAL_PRODUCTS".

Doppelganger

According to antibot4navalny project, as of July 1, this story is being distributed through Doppelganger campaign on Twitter/X: