Scammers Defraud Several UK Citizens Using Meta Family of Apps

Since last year, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms has been walking on a minefield. Their metaverse dream is on halt thanks to artificial intelligence (AI); the company almost lost 70% of its valuation following a flood of investment on virtual worlds’ research. Now an investigation led by a renowned British independent newspaper, The Guardian, highlights how British citizens are scourged by scammers on the organization’s family of social media apps.

Scammers are Busy Thugging UK Citizens on Facebook

A series of stories told to The Guardian revealed various scenarios ranging from minor to large frauds. A prediction shows the company’s failure to deal with the situation may cost £250 Million ($274 Million) by the end of this year. A victim told The Guardian she lost nearly £70K ($76.7K) in an investment scam, wiping out all her life savings in a single go.

Attackers impersonating as family members have become a new trend among the scammers. A 73 year old victim is reported to have sent £2,000 to a scammer posing as her son on WhatsApp. Additionally, malicious actors have pulled small sums in big quantities by setting up bogus shops on Facebook marketplace.

Robin Bolluch, Chief executive officer of a British retail Bank, TSB Bank, says ‘it is tragic to see people losing life changing sums.’ Barclays UK CEO, Matt Hammerstien, believes the nation is going through an ‘epidemic of scams,’ costing the nation Billions.

During its ‘Facebook Inc.’ days, Meta Platforms was defamed following the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal. Reports highlight the company pulled data from 87 Million profiles, delivering it to Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, for political campaigns. The event cost the social media giant $5 Billion in penalties.

UK Government is Implementing Policies to Safeguard Users

In March 2022, the United Kingdom government came up with some changes in the Online Safety Bill. The amendments underscored the need for companies to eliminate unlicensed financial promotions from their platforms. Additionally, officials asked social media firms to remove explicit clickbait content from their websites.

Moreover, TSB Bank has urged social media companies ‘to take liability of frauds.’ The social media industry should take sole responsibility for such cases. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an independent agency of the U.S. government, reported nearly 95,000 people lost around $750 Million through social media scams.

Meta Platforms is recovering from losses incurred during 2022. Recently, the company announced Meta Quest 3, their latest virtual reality (VR) headset. It claims the headset is the most powerful gadget to this date. Zuckerberg said that although Meta will focus on AI in the short term, its long term focus continues to be metaverse. The move suggests the ‘short term’ has ended.

Their Meta Quest Pro, launched in October 2022, will collect users’ biometric data. In November 2021, the company pledged to delete biometric data garnered from over a billion users.

Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.