Facebook has been criticised by users whose accounts were hacked to sell fake Taylor Swift tickets. Victims claimed that Facebook failed to act after multiple attempts to report the scams. Last month, Lloyds Bank estimated that British fans lost £1m in ticket scams, with 90% of reported incidents starting on Facebook. Users have called on Facebook to take action against scammers and prevent these scams from happening in the future.
Kerry Plant, who had her account hacked said that Facebook could have prevented most of the damage by acting sooner. After being duped by posts offering tickets of Swift’s UK tour dates, some friends reportedly lost hundreds of pounds. Plant claimed that Facebook suggested steps to report a hack, which she complied with, but the company did not respond to her emails, even those sent directly to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Zhenya Winter had a similar experience after hackers used artificial intelligence to replicate her writing style, and friends fell for the scam-post selling non-existent tickets. Data breaches and multiple attempts to contact Facebook yielded no response, and when friends tried warning others by commenting on posts, the hackers blocked them.
Facebook has assured its “continual investment” in protections against fraud, investigating the accounts that have been brought to its attention. Consumer organisation Which? criticised Facebook’s response and demands stronger action to prevent and tackle scams. Facebook has urged users to create strong passwords, use two-factor authentication, and be suspicious of requests for personal details, offering a feature called Security Checkup to keep user accounts secure.
Users have demanded that Facebook takes more responsibility and quick action to prevent such scams whose impact on victims can be strongly felt. Meanwhile, the British authorities and regulators are putting pressure on online platforms to take responsibility, and action, against criminal activity taking place on their sites
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