An investigation by The Washington Post has uncovered a dozen accounts, pages, and groups across Facebook and Instagram which misleadingly claim to be official hubs for Libra, Facebook’s proposed digital currency. In some cases these pages, which were only removed after WaPo reported them to Facebook, offered to sell Libra at a discount through third-party websites.
Some claim to sell the coin for a discount if the user visits an external website. Of course, these websites are scam operations trying to get people to turn over their personal and maybe even credit card information. Some of the ads have started popping up on Twitter and Youtube as well.
Facebook removed a number of the scam groups on Monday when it was alerted to them, but its inability to detect and remove the frauds immediately is not a good look for regulators that are already itching to shut the currency down.
Facebook doesn’t allow cryptocurrency ads from advisers that aren’t pre-approved. It recently loosened restrictions to allow more general ads related to blockchain technology or industry news.
In response to The Washington Post’s investigation, a spokesperson from Facebook said, “Facebook removes ads and pages that violate our policies when we become aware of them, and we are constantly working to improve detection of scams on our platforms.”
