Study finds Facebook is failing to remove many scam adverts

In a UK study that will surprise absolutely none of our regular readers, it was found that Facebook has been failing to remove many scam adverts from its platform, even after their users reported them.

A study by consumer watchdog group Which? found that over a quarter of adverts remained on the Facebook platform despite being reported to its moderation team.

But Facebook wasn’t the only guilty party. The same study found that search engine Google failed to remove over a third of scam adverts that were reported to them.

It’s perhaps also of little surprise that the biggest reason people no longer reported scam adverts on Facebook, according to the study, was because they doubted anything would be done.

It’s all information that, sadly, we’re all too familiar with. For example in 2018 UK personality Martin Lewis filed a lawsuit against Facebook for their inaction towards scam adverts using his identity to promote get-rich-quick schemes.

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And while that lawsuit was dropped on the promise that Facebook would improve their reporting facilities, not a great deal has changed. Only last week we (and many others) reported a similar scam advert on Facebook’s platform, this time using the identity of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and a get-rich-quick scam called Bitcoin Prime.

A week later the advert was still visible on Facebook.

Which? concluded that a more pro-active approach was needed to help curb the amount of scam adverts appearing on both Facebook and Google.

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Which? consumer rights expert Adam French said:

Our latest research has exposed significant flaws with the reactive approach taken by tech giants including Google and Facebook in response to the reporting of fraudulent content – leaving victims worryingly exposed to scams.

A proactive and completely reformed approach is indeed needed. But with Facebook especially, this is a company with a history of doing the minimum when it faces this type of criticism. And even then it’s proven to be a struggle, with Facebook often reverting back to old habits once the privacy and security spotlight wanes.