Unapproved or endorsed “scam” advertisements featuring notable Australian people such as entrepreneur Dick Smith, TV host David Koch, and former NSW premier Mike Baird were identified by the ACCC.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has filed a Federal Court complaint against Meta Platforms, Inc. (previously Facebook), saying that the company and its Irish subsidiary engaged in “false, misleading or deceptive conduct” by running fraudulent celebrity crypto adverts.
The sophisticated and long-running scams linked to the ad have cost some people hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Since the beginning of February, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has been investigating Meta for potentially false crypto adverts, according to Coinscreed. Andrew Forrest, an Australian mining billionaire, sued the corporation for hosting adverts that allegedly used his name to deceive victims.
The ACCC said that Meta “aided and abetted or was knowingly concerned in fraudulent or misleading conduct and representations by the marketers” in a statement released earlier today.
Unapproved or endorsed “scam” advertisements featuring notable Australian people such as entrepreneur Dick Smith, TV host David Koch, and former NSW premier Mike Baird were identified by the ACCC.
The ads, according to the regulator, contained suspicious links that took viewers away from Facebook and to a bogus news item with remarks ascribed to the public figure allegedly advocating a “cryptocurrency or money-making plan.”
“They were then urged to sign up,” the notice stated, “and were then approached by scammers who used high-pressure techniques, such as repeated phone calls, to persuade users to deposit monies into the phony schemes.”
“Meta is liable for these adverts that it posts on its platform,” said ACCC Chair Rod Sims, adding that the firm stood to profit financially if the ads were not removed:
“It is a key part of Meta’s business to enable advertisers to target users who are most likely to click on the link in an ad to visit the ad’s landing page, using Facebook algorithms. Those visits to landing pages from ads generate substantial revenue for Facebook.”
“In one horrifying case, a consumer lost more than $650,000 as a result of one of these frauds being falsely presented as an investment opportunity on Facebook.” He went on to say, “This is disgraceful.”
