Social Platforms Face Scrutiny Over Scam Advertising and Messaging-Facilitated APP Fraud
Meta said it is pursuing legal action against advertisers it alleges ran celeb-bait scam ads on its platforms, including defendants based in Brazil, China, and Vietnam. Meta reported suspending the advertisers’ payment methods, disabling related accounts, and blocking domains used in the campaigns, which allegedly misused celebrity images/voices (including synthetic media) to drive victims to scam sites that harvest sensitive data or solicit money via fraudulent products and investment schemes; Meta also said it sent cease-and-desist letters to marketing consultants promoting services to bypass ad-policy enforcement (e.g., “un-ban” services and renting access to trusted accounts).
Separately, a Revolut report on Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud found scam origination increasingly tied to encrypted/direct messaging channels, with Telegram exceeding 20% of reported scam origination and showing significant growth versus 2024, while Meta-owned platforms collectively remained the largest source at 44%. The report highlighted category concentration by platform, including Telegram and WhatsApp accounting for major shares of investment and job scams (with Telegram cited as over 58% of job scams), reinforcing that a large portion of financial fraud is initiated on social and messaging platforms and prompting calls for stronger platform accountability.
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