If you have noticed, from time to time, Facebook sponsored advertisements disguised as “mainstream media” appear on Facebook, including The Sun, The Star, Octavo News, etc., in an attempt to lure victims. Most of these ads are financial or money-related, so Facebook, which often “fights fake news,” is still allegedly allowing scammers to use its platform to defraud Malaysians!
If you click on any of the links, you will be taken to a website that looks like a gambling site and asks you to sign up for an account.
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All Facebook ads must undergo a review process to ensure that they do not violate its advertising policy. Why would Facebook allow such ads again?
The actual fact is that these fraudulent activities are generally launched by using newly created Facebook pages with few fans. And as this type of thing happens again and again, Facebook is urged to step up its scrutiny to prevent false and misleading ads from appearing and causing serious damage to users.
It is worth mentioning that Facebook has launched several anti-fake news and anti-fraud campaigns to help foster digital literacy among Malaysians. # TakNakScam is one of these campaigns, which is being carried out in collaboration with the Royal Malaysian Police, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, and various ministries and government agencies.
Datuk Mohd Kamarudin Md Din, director of our Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) in Kuala Lumpur, also warned that scammers use Facebook and WhatsApp to steal money from victims by posting ads for items for sale and directing them to contact them through WhatsApp, where they give victims a suspicious APK file that they can download. They give the victim a suspicious APK file to download, which in turn steals the user’s money or personal privacy.
