Richest Australian files criminal case against Facebook for running false crypto ads using his image

Australia’s richest man Andrew Forrest has filed a criminal case against Meta-owned Facebook for failing to prevent fraud ads that cheat people using his image.   

Forrest alleged that the scam ads featuring his image are breaches which were not addressed by Facebook.  

Forrest, chairman of Fortescue Metals Group, said he was filing the proceedings to prevent people lose money by falling into the trap of the fake ads projecting his image, such as the one promoting cryptocurrency.  

“I’m concerned about innocent Australian being scammed through clickbait advertising on social media,” Forrest said in a statement.  

“I’m acting here for Australians, but this is happening all over the world.”  

Forrest alleged Facebook of being “criminally reckless” in not doing much to stop the ads, which first came up in early 2019.  

“The three charges filed allege Facebook was criminally reckless by not taking sufficient steps to stop criminals from using its social media platform to send scam, fraudulent and deeply dishonest advertisements to fraud Australian mums and dads and innocent users,” Forrest told local media.  

“This legal action follows many attempts by me asking Facebook to prevent my image from being used by criminals to scam hard-working Australians and hard-working people around the world,” he said.   

The scam use his picture (other celebrities too) to encourage false investments that promise financial benefits. Even when Facebook bans such kind of ads, much still does rounds.

According to The Australian newspaper, Forrest, in the lawsuit has alleged that Facebook “knowingly profits from this cycle of illegal ads.”  

Facebook in a statement said that scam ads violated its policies.  

“We take a multifaceted approach to stop these ads, we work not just to detect and reject the ads themselves but also block advertisers from our services and, in some cases, take court action to enforce our policies,” BBC quoted a Meta representative as saying.