Meta denies claim more than half of Facebook cryptocurrency ads are scams
Australia’s competition watchdog claims 58% of cryptocurrency advertising on Facebook are fraudulent; Meta claims the data is outdated and untrustworthy. Facebook parent company Meta has rejected accusations that more over half of cryptocurrency ads on Facebook are frauds, claiming the data is out of date and that it has made steps to solve the issue.
As part of its 2022 case, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) stated in a recent federal court filing that 58% of the cryptocurrency adverts it assessed on Facebook were frauds.
In a reply to Cointelegraph, a Meta spokesman stated that the data in the ACCC’s statement of claim is based on outdated information from 2018 and is from a “limited data set,” and that other communication methods remain the most common way people are duped.
According to the representative, the ACCC “data is unlikely to be an accurate representation of our platform today.”
“The relevant preliminary analysis is an accusation in the ACCC’s claim and is based on a previous internal assessment of a small sample of advertisements conducted in 2018. The representative stated that Meta is disputing the ACCC’s accusation and would reply to the charge in due course. “Scammers use every platform accessible to them and are continuously adapting to avoid detection.
The ACCC claims to have found 600 advertising throughout its inquiry, that Meta has been aware of many of the crypto adverts on Facebook using false promotional techniques since “at least January 2018.”
It further said Meta does take down specific advertising whenever complaints are received and block connected accounts, but it continues to generate revenue from similar adverts.However, Meta claims it has done more to combat bogus ads.
According to Meta, it has employed manual reviews, automated technology, joined the Australian Online Scams Code (AOSC), and modified guidelines to guarantee marketers upload legitimate content.
“We currently use, and continue to explore, a variety of methods, such as new machine learning techniques, to identify content and accounts that violate our policy,” a spokeswoman for Meta told me.
Meta claims to have deleted 631 million fraudulent accounts and 436 million pieces of spam content from Facebook in the first quarter of 2024, with 99.4% of bogus accounts and 98.2% of spam content being addressed before users reported it.
Several celebrities have filed legal action against Meta for what they claim is inaction on cryptocurrency and associated schemes exploiting their likeness.
In June 2022, billionaire Australian mining tycoon Andrew Forrest filed a civil suit against Meta in California Northern District Court, alleging that “Facebook’s self-help advertising interface materially helped scammers develop” ads.
Divya Das and Kim Bildsøe Lassen, hosts of prominent Danish TV shows, denounced Meta to the authorities in April after discovering their photographs were used in thousands of Facebook ads without their consent. Four fraud victims in Japan filed legal action in April after being misled by internet investment adverts that exploited celebrity photographs to entice consumers.
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