Meta has denied that more than half of Facebook’s crypto ads are scams.

Facebook's parent company Meta denied that more than half of crypto ads on Facebook were scams, saying the data was out of date and it was taking steps to address the problem.

As part of the 2022 lawsuit, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) revealed in a recent application to the Federal Court that 58% of crypto ads it reviewed on Facebook were fraudulent.

A spokesperson for Meta told Cointelegraph that the information in the ACCC's statement of claims is based on old data from 2018 and is from a “limited data set”, and other means of communication are still the main way people are deceived.

A spokesman for the ACCC argued that it was unlikely that “data is an accurate representation of the platform today”.

“The first analysis referred to is an allegation in the ACCC's claim and relates to a historical internal study of a small sample of advertisements in 2018. Meta is defending the ACCC's claims and will respond to the allegations in due course, a spokesman said.

“Cheaters use every platform available to them and are always practicing to evade enforcement. Meta does not want fraud on its platforms and we will continue to work tirelessly to prevent them and protect our users.”

The ACCC says it identified 600 ads during its investigation, and since “at least January 2018,” Meta knows that the majority of crypto ads on Facebook used deceptive advertising practices.

Meta will also take down individual ads and block related accounts after complaints are received. However, it continues to earn revenue from the same ads.

Related: Billionaire's lawsuit over Meta's fraudulent crypto ads dismissed in Australia

However, Meta argued that it is doing more to curb fraudulent ads.

According to Meta, it opted for manual reviews, automated technology, the Australian Online Scams Code (AOSC), and also updated guidelines to ensure advertisers post legitimate content.

“We currently use and continue to explore a variety of methods, such as new machine learning techniques, to identify content and tags that violate our policies,” a Meta spokesperson said.

Meta said it removed 631 million fake accounts and 436 million spam content from Facebook in the first quarter of 2024, saying 99.4% of fake accounts and 98.2% of spam were dealt with before users reported it.

Several celebrities have taken legal action against Meta's failure to take action against crypto and related scams using their likenesses.

Billionaire Australian mining tycoon Andrew Forrest filed a civil suit against Meta in June 2022 in California's Northern District Court, alleging that “Facebook's self-help ad interface helped fraudsters promote ads.”

DV Das and Kim Bildsøy Lassen, hosts of popular Danish TV shows, reported Meta to the police in April after discovering that their images had been unwittingly used in thousands of Facebook ads.

Four scam victims in Japan also took legal action in April after being tricked by online investment ads that used celebrity images to lure people in.

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