Canada: a complaint against Facebook for fraudulent ads
Mark Zuckerberg, boss of Facebook. (Illustrative image) ASSOCIATED PRESS - Lea Suzuki
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2 min
Facebook regularly runs ads in Canada where fake financial advisors promise extraordinary returns for cryptocurrency investments. Some Internet users fall into the nets of thieves. This misadventure happened to two Quebecers who lost hundreds of millions of euros. A lawyer has just filed a class action lawsuit to sue Facebook that runs such ads.
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The promises of miraculous investments in cryptocurrency, using without their agreement Elon Musk, the boss of Twitter or Quebec TV hosts, are pure invention. Rather than talking to a financial advisor, people are communicating with thieves.
For lawyer David Bourgoin, the Facebook platform has its share of responsibility in this fraud, because it broadcasts these ads. "The purpose of advertising is to make people fall into the trap. It's expensive. Then it is the distress and shame of these people. I have two or three who have told me, we have never talked to our family about this, you are the first one we write to because we are too ashamed. Class action also allows anonymity," he explains.
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Ads that stay for months on the social network
For its part, Facebook says it will remove fraudulent ads as soon as it is notified. But it can take months before Internet users realize that they have been victims of fraud.
Akim Laniel-Lanani, from the cybercriminology clinic: "So during those 2, 3, 4 months, the person has lost that advertising, is not able to go back, to report to Facebook that it was fraudulent, so these fraudsters have a grace period, until someone notices. "
At least a year will pass before the judge decides whether a class action is possible. Other victims of these false advertisements could therefore be added.
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- Canada
- Criminality
- Internet