Aussie Watchdog Starts Investigating Meta Over Crypto Scam Ads

The Aussie watchdog starts investigating Meta over crypto scam ads and the news came one day after billionaire Andrew Forrest announced he will pursue legal action against the company so let’s find out more today in our latest cryptocurrency news.

The Aussie watchdog – the Consumer and Competition regulator will investigate Facebook’s parent company Meta for a series of scam crypto ads ont the platform. The news came a day after the reports emerged that billionaire businessman Andrew Forrest was pursuing criminal action against the social media giant for serving crypto scam ads and fake articles using his name. Plenty of other high-profile celebrities from Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman all fraudulently employed get the user’s attention to these scams.

The ACC alleges that Meta allowed the scammers to breach the Australian consumer law and defrauded victims out of thousands of dollars. The ACCC Chair Rod Sims said that their investigation shares similarities with the Forrest case but still it is separate and concerns other questions of law. While Forrest’s case concerns potential breaches of the criminal codes of the country, the regulator will be examining whether Meta raised concerns under the Australian consumer law:

“Like Dr Forrest, we consider that Meta should be doing more to detect, prevent and remove false or misleading advertisements from the Facebook platform so that consumers are not misled and scammers are prevented from reaching potential victims.”

Forrest claims that by failing to take the needed steps to eliminate the scams from being shared on the platform, Meta breached the Australian money laundering laws but also behaved in a reckless manner. He will bring the case to the West Australian Magistrates Court with a commital hearing that is expected to happen later in the year. He also launched a simultaneous civil proceeding last September and the case is still pending. In 2020, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission issued a warning on a fake crypto ad that included Waleed Aly and Hugh Jackman.

Other celebrities like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson had their images stolen for a crypto scam ad purpose as well. The Australian Facebook users reported that they lost hundreds of thousands to the scam including another victim who said they thought the scam was legitimate because it featured a celebrity:

“Andrew Forrest is an icon for millions of Australians and you hold him in high regard, anything involving him you‘d think is legitimate because it’s coming out in public through Facebook.”