Meta shares ways to fight crypto scam ads

What’s new? Meta has denied the claim that more than half of the crypto project ads on its Facebook are fraudulent. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had earlier made such a statement. It filed a lawsuit against Meta for distributing scam crypto ads back in 2022, and the claim that 58% of crypto ads fall into this category came following a preliminary investigation in August this year.

Material by Cointelegraph

What else is known? According to the ACCC lawsuit, scam crypto ads on Facebook use images of famous Australians such as entrepreneur Dick Smith, billionaire and former casino executive James Packer, Hollywood actors Chris Hemsworth, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe, and politician Mike Baird.

The lawsuit does not cite the amount of damage from such crypto ads, but according to government portal Scamwatch, investment scams in general are the most common type of scam in Australia. In 2024 alone, authorities received 3 456 reports of scams with $78 million in loss.

The ACCC identified around 600 fraudulent crypto ads during its own investigation. According to the regulator, Meta had been aware since early 2018 that a significant portion of crypto ads on Facebook were using misleading promotional techniques, even though this is prohibited by the rules of the platform itself.

The commission's lawsuit claims that Meta has the technical ability to tag such ads, but there is no comprehensive effort to do so. The corporation allegedly removes only individual ads and blocks the accounts that placed them after receiving complaints, while continuing to generate revenue from such ads.

In turn, a Meta representative said in a comment to Cointelegraph that the ACCC's accusation is based on outdated information for 2018, which does not reflect the current situation on the platform.

The company claims to have implemented automated and manual content checks, started complying with the Australian Online Scams Code recommendations of the Australian regulator, and updated its own rules for advertisers.

Thus, in Q1 2024, Meta removed 631 million fake accounts and 436 million pieces of spam content from Facebook, with 99,4% of fake accounts and 98,2% of spam content removed prior to receiving complaints from users.

Meta has also previously faced lawsuits from celebrities themselves over fraudulent ads. For example, in 2022, Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest filed a lawsuit in a US court for using his image in fraudulent advertising on the social network. A similar complaint was filed by Danish TV presenters Divya Das and Kim Bildse Lassen.