Facebook’s New Scam Ad Buster Launches

Facebook seems to have taken action into their own digital hands with a brand new tool that allows its (for now, only) UK users to report fake adverts. The special tool will work on the simple premise of reviewing and reporting an ad to a team of specially trained professionals that will take down the fraudulent advertising and prevent similar ones from ever popping up. This measure of security is mirrored by the latest FCA plan to ban all crypto derivatives to retail investors.

For some time now, fake ads have been the most effective, consequently making them the most popular, way to seduce online users into investing money with fraudulent companies, many of which are scammer brokerage firms that have cost the UK’s public sector tens of million of dollars over the last couple of years.

The initiator of this inevitable move is Martin Lewis, whose name and face have been used multiple times in fake ads across the Facebook platform. In response to these ads, Martin filed a defamation lawsuit against Facebook, which was abruptly dropped after the tech giant decided to create the reporting tool and agreed to donate £3m to Citizens Advice (independent charity chain in the UK).

Citizens Advice at their end conceded to establish a telephone help-line to aid users in need of assistance should they fall victim to a scam resulting from an illicit ad. For more serious cases, the charity will also offer face-to-face consultations.

UK Facebook users should be able to access these tools as of writing this. Every advert has 3 dots in the top corner that hide a small menu with options, one of which should be “Report Ad” where user will be able to “send a detailed scam report” to the aforementioned specialized team.

This is a much needed defensive maneuver, and the fact that it’s coming from a top-tier company means that others will surely follow in its footsteps. It’s about time, if you ask us, to take action against the never-ending lineup of fraudulent internet service providers.