The chairman of Fortescue Metals accused Facebook of allowing the social network to facilitate millions of dollars worth of crypto-currency scams through access to user data.
Andrew Forrest has filed a lawsuit against Facebook for a fraudulent cryptocurrency ad that used his name to deceive users. The victim of scams was an Australian citizen who lost 952,000 Australian dollars (about $680,000) due to fraudulent advertising. The lawsuit alleges that the scammers deceived users of the social network out of millions of dollars.
“Fraud scenarios that used the name, appearance and reputation of Dr. Forrest were played out to find victims. The victims, believing that Dr. Forrest was in fact endorsing the investment scheme, informed him that they had been duped,” the statement said.
Lawyers for Forrest noted that they do not know the exact number and names of the victims deceived in this scam, but “the scale of the harm is enormous.” At the same time, the main factor contributing to the spread of illegal advertising, fake news and other unwanted Internet materials was Facebook’s access to user data. Forrest added that the company’s refusal to remove the fraudulent ad was “criminally reckless.”
A spokeswoman for Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms said the company is taking a “multi-faceted approach to combating such ads” by identifying fraudulent content, blocking advertisers, and in some cases even going to court. Despite Facebook’s assurances, Forrest believes the company should have done more to prevent the spread of fraudulent ads on the social network.
Forrest agrees that scammers are not easy to trace because they are overseas. However, he believes that the best way to protect Australian users of Facebook is to force the company to introduce measures to stop criminal activity through prosecution. An initial court hearing in Western Australia Magistrates’ Court is scheduled for March 28, with a final hearing expected in late 2022.
Recall that in March 2021, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson threatened to sue social platforms Twitter and YouTube, accusing them of benefiting from scammers posing as Cardano executives. In 2020, Ripple accused video hosting YouTube of deliberately facilitating fraudulent distributions of XRP. The company appealed against YouTube’s claim that the service was not aware of the fake videos.
In 2020, Facebook filed a lawsuit against a user who operated a masking service that allowed ads for fraudulent cryptocurrencies and other projects on the social network.
Source: Bits
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