Martin Lewis gets Facebook to donate £3m to help tackle fraudsters as social network promises to launch new scam ad reporting tool
The TV personality is also dropping his lawsuit against the social media giant for hosting fake ads using his face and name
MARTIN Lewis, the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, has convinced Facebook to invest £3million in a new project tackling online fraud and scam adverts.
The TV presenter and journalist has dropped his lawsuit against the social media giant for hosting fake adverts featuring his name and face as they team up to tackle online fraudsters.
Facebook is also launching a new reporting tool that will allow users to flag scam adverts when they see one.
Consumer charity network Citizens Advice will set up the new project - called Citizens Advice Scams Action - in May using Facebook's £3m donation.
In a blow to those who have lost significant sums of money to these online scams, victims will not get their money back through the scheme.
Instead the project is focusing on prevention and raising awareness of these type of scams, which often use respected celebrities such as Alan Sugar and Dragon's Den star Deborah Meaden to convince people they're genuine.
What is Facebook doing to stop online scam adverts?
HERE is everything Facebook is doing to combat online scam adverts after a campaign by Martin Lewis:
1. The launch of the Citizens Advice Scams Action project
This scheme aims to:
- Increase education and awareness about digital scam ads and how to recognise them.
- Provide one-to-one tailored support to help people recognise scams, and working with victim of online scams who need help to get their lives back on track.
- Explore and build on existing work by Facebook on the development of online tools to assist consumers (including victims) with online scams.
It will not compensate victims for any money they have lost through adverts they have seen on Facebook or elsewhere.
2. The launch of a new scam ad reporting tool
The tool will easily and quickly flag ads Facebook believe to be scams violating Facebook’s Advertising Policies or other standards.
Facebook will also launch a dedicated internal operations team to handle these reports, investigate trends and enforce against violating ads.
The team will be trained to handle this specialist issue and empowered to take wide-ranging action against scam ads.
The programme is being set up after Martin Lewis slammed Facebook last year for ignoring calls for it to do more to stop fake adverts on its website.
His name and picture was being used on "thousands" of scam adverts, which which he said target, hurt and steal money from vulnerable people.
The adverts included get rich quick schemes that piggybacked on his reputation to con Facebook users.
Facebook's new scam advert reporting tool and CASA will only launch in the UK, and won't be available until May.
'I was scammed by Facebook fake ad'
ONE Sun Online reader last year told how he feared he had been scammed for £100 by a promoted Facebook advert.
Roy Thomas, 60, said he paid for an ebike after spotting an advert from a company called Dic Space.
He paid £98.99 in a "sale" but it still hadn't arrived after more than 30 days - and hadn't been able to get hold of the company.
He told The Sun Online: ";It had looked like a bona fide company, and it looked very professional.
"It all looked good but after seven days it still hadn’t arrived.
"In effect, they don’t give you any actual details of the company that is going to be delivering the item, or anything to go off with that, so you can’t contact anyone.
"I’ve tried contacting the company but never received one bit of contact from them again.
"I had sent them an email saying I could pick it up, but it fell on deaf ears."
But at a press conference today, Facebook's regional director for Northern Europe, Steve Hatch, said the scheme could be rolled out globally in the future.
Martin Lewis has called for other online platforms - including Google and Yahoo - to follow in Facebook's footsteps and sign up to the new project.
He said: "I hope it will have a tangible real impact on people's lives.
"We do have a national epidemic of scams, not just in online advertising but right across the board with phone scams, banking scams that are coming in the UK.
How to protect yourself against online scams
ONLINE scams are a danger to both your personal details and your cash. Here are some tips you need to be aware of, according to Action Fraud.
Protect yourself - Always be suspicious. Don't assume anyone who has sent you an email or text message or has left a voice is who they say they are.
If the message asks you to make a payment, log-in to an online account or offers you a deal, be extremely cautious.
Banks will never email you for passwords or any other sensitive information by asking you to click on a link or visit a website.
Spot the signs - Always check spellings and grammar of an email or website. If it's poorly designed and contains lots of errors, the website probably isn't legit. Genuine businesses won't use web-based email addresses such as Gmail or Yahoo.
Make sure the sites are verified - Facebook, Twitter and other social media can also be used to direct you to a spoof website.
Official accounts are "verified" and come with checkmark icon next to their name - so make sure you check.
"From my position, I'm trying to do all I can campaigning on it. This has been quite a stressful nine months while the negotiations have been going on.
It hasn't been a fun thing to do, it's not actually my core area. But it's something I felt I needed to do."
He added: "I want everyone in the country to be warned about scam advertising."
Martin Lewis now wants regulators to step in and make fraudsters more accountable to help victims potentially get their money back.
Elijah Lawal, a spokesman for Google, said: ""Because we want the ads people see on Google to be useful and relevant, we take immediate action to prevent fake and inappropriate ads.
"We have a tool where anyone can report these ads and these complaints are reviewed manually by our team.
"In 2017, we removed 3.2 billion bad ads and we’re constantly updating our policies as we see new threats emerge."
Last year, Alan Sugar also warned about Bitcoin scam adverts using his name.
Action fraud figures showed 1,639 scams were reported in 2017, with the majority of those related to online shopping.
Earlier this month, a student revealed he'd lost £17,000 of his savings after scammers emptied his bank accounts.
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