We’re working for you to expose social media scams. Misleading ads for “easy money” or “rapid weight loss” may wind up costing you your hard-earned money.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has been accused of earning billions of dollars from online ads paid for by fraudsters. It’s not just less savvy internet scrollers getting fooled.
As Consumer Reports found out, this problem isn’t going away.
Thomas in Utah had his credit card information stolen after buying, but never receiving, a product advertised on Instagram.
The items Theresa from Nebraska bought through a Facebook ad were not at all like the ones in their photos.
Consumer Reports says stories like these, submitted to its website, are becoming more common.
“People reached out to us— ‘Yeah, I saw this ad on Facebook. Seemed too good to be true.’ And guess what? It was,” said Justin Brookman, with Consumer Reports.
Reuters says its investigation found that a large number of ads on Meta’s social media sites were scams served up to users by Meta’s algorithm.
“We always knew there were some fraudulent ads there, but they did a deep dive and said that up to 10 percent of the company’s global revenue was coming from ads for scams or for other illegal activity,” said Brookman.
According to Reuters, Meta was aware of the problem, but undercut efforts to stop it, while projecting roughly $16 billion in earnings from scam ads.
In a statement to Consumer Reports, Meta said, “We aggressively fight fraud and scams,” and said the documents Reuters relied on, “present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud.”
In response to claims that 10 percent of its revenue was generated by scam ads, Meta says, “that number was based on a rough estimate, and subsequent audits found many of the ads were not violating its terms and conditions.”
Short of swearing off social media altogether, CR says there are steps families can take!
Be skeptical. Treat ads for unbelievable deals with extreme caution.
And if an ad looks suspicious, report it!