Facebook’s parent company, Meta, wins ‘Shonky’ award for not tackling scam ads

Scam ads are lucrative for scammers, but the money they steal from vulnerable people is also delivering plenty of cash to Mark Zuckerberg and his social media company Meta.

The business behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp has been named one of five “winners” in consumer group CHOICE’s annual Shonky Awards for trash products.

The CHOICE Shonkys for 2024 went to:

• Meta – for failing to protect Aussies from scams 
• The Acerpure Clean Lite stick vacuum – for being the worst stick vacuum we’ve ever tested 
• NIB – for charging single parents more than couples for health insurance
• Daily Juice Co – for using food colouring instead of vegies in its ‘green’ juice
• GroundingWell grounding socks – for making unearthly promises

CHOICE CEO, Ashley de Silva, said this year’s winners prove that shonky products and business practices are still rife.

In Meta’s case, scam losses from social media in 2023 hit $95 million, a nearly 250% increase on 2020. And Meta’s platforms accounted for 76% of all reported social media scam losses last yea

“Meta hasn’t stepped up. “When CHOICE reported three suspicious Facebook ads as scams to Meta, one remained live for at least four days,” de Silva said. 

“The other two were taken down within 24 hours, but one of these accounts was allowed to quickly re-post an almost identical ad and continue to promote other suspicious ads. Meta was a clear choice for a Shonky Award this year.”

The US tech journal Wired estimated that over nearly four years to April 2022, Meta made more than A$44 million in ad revenue from networks it subsequently removed for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”, including political manipulation and coordinated spam and scams.

Meta did not respond when CHOICE asked if the figure was accurate, instead claiming it had spend more than $20 billion on “safety and security” since 2016.

But plenty believe they’re not doing enough.

Former government cybersecurity boss Alastair MacGibbon recently accused social media companies of being “wilfully blind towards criminality on their sites”, adding that they’re “contemptuous” towards Australians and have done “nothing” to help protect their users from scams and crimes.

Not enough done

Last year a survey by CHOICE found that two-thirds of Australians believe Google and Meta aren’t doing enough to stop social media scams.

In 2022 consumer watchdog the ACCC began a push for tougher controls over tech titans Meta, Google, Apple and Amazon to tackle scams and fraud

He claimed that between April and November 2023 more than 1,000 ads bearing his likeness ran on Meta platforms.

Meta’s response to the case has been to invoke a US law, called Section 230, that gives them immunity from liability for running the fraudulent ads.

Forrest has not given up though, having begun court action against Meta in California in 2021. In in June after a US district judge ruled that he can continue to sue Meta over the Facebook ads. And in August, Forrest had another win when an appeal by Meta was dismissed by the US District Court, with the judge saying “Meta has not established beyond dispute that Section 230 provides an airtight affirmative defence to all of Dr Forrest’s claims”.

Two promised $1000s in “guaranteed returns” if you invested in their crypto advice, while the other featured an image of Robert Irwin promising to pay you 500 euros to people who downloaded an app.

Two were taken down within 24 hours, including the Robert Irwin ad. However, the account that posted the Irwin ad was allowed to quickly re-post the same ad with the identical image and almost identical text.

Söderlund said the account had over 500 other active sponsored ads that Meta continued to profit from at the time of checking, and some of these other ads were highly suspicious.

The third ad CHOICE reported remained live for at least four days before being taken down.

More shonky products

Health insurer NIB was “the worst of a shonky bunch” de Silva said, when premiums doubled for single parent with Gold Top Hospital cover, when they added their child, while a couple only paid an extra 4% to include a child on the same policy.

“If you’re looking again at NIB’s Gold Top Hospital cover, the single parent policy also costs more than the equivalent couples policy. In NSW, it’s $760 per month for a couple with no kids, and $770 for a single parent. That means if you’re single, it’d be cheaper to add a romantic partner to your policy than your own child,” de Silva said.

Daily Juice Co was declared shonky for a green juice that’s all food colouring and no veggies.

“When it comes to Daily Juice Co’s ‘green’ juices, there’s not a veggie in sight Their ‘Daily Juice Green Mix’ and ‘Daily Juice Green Juice Blend with Folate’ only contain fruit juices, and rely on added colourings for their green label,” de Silva said. 

And when it comes to shonky tech, the $40 GroundingWell grounding socks, which claim to alleviate pain, reverse the effects of ageing, improve sleep, and more, all by hooking you up to the grounding socket on a power outlet, seem to be pulling the other one. 

“We couldn’t find any evidence that they deliver on any of the promised health benefits,” de Silva said. 

“GroundingWell’s socks are also really poorly made. The connection pin, which is hard to detach from the grounding cable, tore off the socks after just two uses. $40 for a pair of socks that quickly fall apart and can’t make good on their health claims? We think that’s pretty shonky.”