Michigan's top legal officer is leading a charge with a posse of attorneys general from across the States to call out Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook and WhatsApp, for the proliferation of investment scams on its platforms. Dana Nessel, along with 42 other attorneys general, has dropped a hefty letter on Meta's doorstep, urging the social media behemoth to get serious about its ad policies and to quickly weed out shifty characters using its space to dupe users with bogus investment opportunities.
In a document picked up by the Michigan Department of Attorney General, the coalition laid out its concerns about the increasing number of deceptive ads on Facebook. Scammers are slick, impersonating well-known investors to draw unsuspecting people into sham investment groups via WhatsApp. It's a classic "pump and dump" routine, where they tout penny stocks poised to supposedly spike, only to cash out and leave investors holding the bag of hefty losses. Nessel pointedly remarked, "These scams spreading across Facebook and WhatsApp have already and will continue to drain retirement savings, college funds, and the financial safety nets of users." The attorney general was clear in her admonishment of Meta for turning a blind eye to the scams when the company benefits from the ads, sparking the fires of fraud.
The attorneys general aren't just standing by with folded arms and stern looks — they have proposals for Meta to consider. They've suggested that the company perform more thorough background checks on anyone pushing investment ads, to put those ads through a human review process before they hit the public eye, or to halt investment-related adverts altogether until they can guarantee adequate protections are firmly in place. With users' college funds and life savings at stake, the AGs believe Meta needs to step up its game.
