Online criminals are impersonating as the representative of Facebook to lure victims into buying the social media platform’s yet-to-release cryptocurrency, Libra.<\/p>\n
According to the Washington Post<\/a>, scammers lately ran ads through a dozen on fake accounts, pages, and groups across Facebook and Instagram, presenting themselves as the official hubs of Libra. In a few cases, they attempted to sell people the cryptocurrency at discounted rates in exchange for them visiting potentially deceitful, third-party websites.<\/p>\n The Post observed that Facebook\u00a0was unable to detect those fakes. The social media giant removed the fraudulent ads only upon the media’s alert, highlighting how the technology firm struggled to keep the scammers out of its platform. In response, Facebook spokesperson Elka Looks said they remove ads and pages that meddle with the platform’s policies only when they become aware of them.<\/p>\n “We are constantly working to improve [the] detection of scams on our platforms,\u201d Looks stressed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But according to Eswar Prasad, an economics scholar at Cornell University, the time of making promises is already in hindsight. He said there is an irony in how scammers used Facebook the social media platform to undermine trust in Facebook the cryptocurrency, adding that people could have a hard time trusting the tech firm.<\/p>\n \u201cFacebook has an enormous worldwide network and enormous financial muscle .\u2009.\u2009. But the only way Libra will work well as a medium of exchange is if everyone can trust it. And that’s the big question right now: whether there is going to be enough trust in Facebook.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Senator Mark R. Warner, one of the lawmakers that questioned Libra’s head David Marcus on Capitol Hill last week, said Facebook’s inability to detect frauds remain a big concern.<\/p>\n \u201cThis,” he said on Monday, “is another strong indication Facebook should take a very cautious approach to Libra and commit not to launching any product until U.S. regulator concerns are satisfied.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Warner also brought to light the high production values of those fake Libra ads. One phony video copied Facebook’s video story format and showed Mark Zuckerberg walking across a stage as he called Libra \u201csafe,” and \u201cthe new world\u2019s currency.\u201d The video promised to distribute some 20 million Libra tokens at discounted rates, stating that early investors also received a similar offer.<\/p>\n Scams for Libra are already popping up on @Facebook<\/a>. pic.twitter.com\/yR1ZXrbApM<\/a><\/p>\n — Digital Trends (@DigitalTrends) July 24, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nLawmaker Issues Statement<\/h2>\n
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