New Delhi: Social media giant Meta said on Wednesday it removed a cluster of scam activity totaling 23,000 Facebook pages and accounts in March, targeting people in Brazil and India. It also said that scammers used deep strikes in other technologies that were falsely described among popular personal finance content creators, cricketers and business figures in Brazil and India, endorsing scam investment apps and gambling sites.
Scammers redirect people to sending “investment advice” messages and in some cases go to a fake website that mimics the Google Play store to download the scam gambling app. “In March, Meta removed multiple clusters of scam activity, totaling more than 23,000 Facebook pages and accounts, which are mainly targeted at people in Brazil and India,” Meta said in a press release.
Meta also highlights its anti-SCAM tool that can effectively fight back such fraud attempts, including Messenger's warnings. Often, investment scams on social media attract people to invest in opportunities that are faked or non-existent, and are expected to return quickly and easily on assets such as cryptocurrencies, real estate or stocks. Scammers offer “exclusive” investment opportunities or access to coaching groups via social media, email or call.
On the other hand, metadata says payment scams also often use speed and anonymity in the online world to scam people, and a good example is a prepayment scam where scammers pretend to be legitimate sellers on platforms like Facebook Marketplace demand payments before delivery and then disappear.
With Meta's ongoing efforts to promote scam awareness, the company shares insights and convenient tips to help people identify and protect themselves to prevent online co-investment and payment scams. Meta also highlights security tools available on its platform, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp that can help people avoid these scams.
Meta also warned that overpayment and refund requests, fraudsters overpay items they purchased online (or claiming to pay too much with fake receipts) and request a partial refund. They later reversed the original payment (if they paid) and walked away with both payments.
“Meta also continues to work closely with Indian authorities and civil society to enhance digital security, and cites initiatives from the Ministry of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre,” the release said.
