Facebook parent company Meta is facing a lawsuit in Australia alleging it failed to stop ads promoting cryptocurrency scams.
The Australian Competition and Users Commission (ACCC) alleges that the company breached laws prohibiting false, misleading or deceptive conduct, such as investment laws.
According to the report, it appears that there were multiple advertisements showing celebrities, politicians, and TV broadcasters promoting multiple fraudulent money-making schemes. None of these people gave their permission for their image to be used in this way, which is also an argument in favor of identity theft.
Facebook denies any responsibility
People who fell for the scam and opened an account with these fraudulent services were also subjected to "high pressure tactics", including repeated phone calls, forcing them to deposit and ultimately lose their money.
One person lost almost US$XNUMX, according to the ACCC.
"We argue that Meta's technology made it possible to target these ads to the users most likely to interact with the ads, that Meta assured its users that it would warn and prevent spam and promote safety on Facebook, but that it has not prevented them from others by posting related celebrity-sponsored cryptocurrency scam ads on their pages or warning users,” said The Register, convened by ACCC Chairman Rod Sims.
“The essence of our case is that Meta is the one who is in charge of the ads that it runs on its platform,” added Sims. "It's a key part of Meta's business to let advertisers target the users who are most likely to click an ad's link to visit the ad's landing page, using Facebook's algorithms. These page visits Ad landing pages produce substantial revenue for Facebook. Meta should have done more to warn and then remove fake or fake ads on Facebook to prevent users from falling victim to malicious scammers.
In response to the lawsuit, Meta told The Register that he rejects the idea of deliberately allowing such ads on the platform and that he will work with the ACCC and defend the case.
"We don't want ads that try to scam people out of money or lie to people on Facebook; they violate our policies and are not good for our community. We use technology to warn and block fraudulent ads, and we work hard to stay ahead." attempts by scammers to evade our detection systems,” Facebook said.
Via: The Registry