Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has launched a global initiative to help people spot and avoid online investment and payment scams.
In a statement, Meta announced that these tools, tips and partnerships will come in handy to help people globally, as these scams continue to grow in sophistication and scale across social media and messaging platforms.
“From proactive platform alerts to global law enforcement partnerships, the effort is designed to disrupt scam networks and empower users with better tools to stay safe,” reads the statement.
“Scammers often contact people by e-mail, social media, texts or calls with offers of 'exclusive' or special opportunities, or invitations to join 'investment coaching' groups. These scams often promise quick and easy returns with little to no risk on assets like shares of a company, crypto-currency, real estate or precious metals and coins.”
The initiative includes four key updates: in-app scam alerts on Messenger, Instagram and Facebook; tools for privacy and account safety; increased visibility for instant payment scams; and AI-powered facial recognition to identify and remove celeb-bait scams.
Meta says in SA, a common investment scam to watch out for involves scammers posing as employees or investment coaches affiliated with crypto-currency apps like Luno and Valr.
“These scammers use fake Facebook and TikTok accounts to claim trading secrets for Luno, Valr and the trading platform Yellow Card. These fake investment coaches also posted decontextualised images and videos of people crying or singing, superimposed over screenshots of crypto accounts that had made profits, to make it look like they were being thanked for earning people money. Scammers also offered to help people recover funds lost to previous Luno and Valr related scams.”
Meta adds that it continues to build global defences through the Tech Against Scams Coalition (TASC) and its own Llama Defenders Program, giving partners early access to AI tools to combat fraud, phishing and scams.
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