Meta ran ads for Australian company under fraud investigation

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Tech giant meta is under fire for running Facebook advertisements which were used to lure Australian investors into a fraudulent bond scheme. The corporate watchdog is investigating allegations investors were defrauded of tens of millions of dollars.

Transcript

00:00Si Skipworth has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars

00:05after investing in what he thought was a low-risk fixed-term bond.

00:10It's definitely set me back $300,000 as a lot of money.

00:13Investors like Si paid Australian company GIM trading around $23 million,

00:19but fear their money has been stolen,

00:22an allegation being investigated by the corporate watchdog.

00:26GIM's director Darren Geddes declined to comment.

00:29Facebook, being a large multinational like they are,

00:32lend an air of legitimacy to the people who are advertising on it.

00:36Meta is absolutely culpable

00:38and should be very much on the line for compensating consumers.

00:44More than 40% of online scams reported to Scamwatch

00:48in the last week of October were on Meta's platforms.

00:51We want to see more from Meta and indeed more from all platforms

00:56to prevent scam ads.

00:59I don't think they're concerned about whether they're causing harm to people or misery.

01:05I think it's just purely the profit incentive.

01:07The Albanese government has passed laws which will make digital giants liable to repay scam victims.

01:14However, people can't lodge complaints until 2027.

01:18We were expecting the scam prevention framework to be switching on in 2026.

01:22Australians should absolutely not have to wait.

01:25Meta did not respond to questions about how much money it received to run the GIM trading ads

01:31or what checks it did.

01:33It's taken them down

01:34and removed more than 130 million scam ads globally this year.

01:39.

01:40.

01:49.

01:58.

02:01.

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