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Thread about #Facebook bitcoin scammers and how Facebook's own algorithm seems to uncover scam related pages. 1/N
For several years bitcoin scammers have been using sponsored Facebooks status with photos of celebrities to rip people off. Scammers localize the ads: in Holland they use Jan de Mol, in UK Martin Lewis. In Finland they now use actor @jasperpaakkonen . 2/N
Scammers direct people from FB status to scam pages which look very much like Yle News site (see pic). FB pages are reported by Yle to FB if we come across them. After reporting the status and the publishing page usually disappears or is taken down by FB at some point. 3/N
After couple of days a new page and new sponsored status appear. I reported one case couple of days ago. After reporting I clicked around a bit, just to see if there was something that might hint something about the creators. Of course there was nothing. Except… 4/N
The page I had reported was named Fact’s of Animal’s (sic). It had Related Pages box on it. And in this box there were three pages with similar bit clumsy names. I checked them out. Nothing special, except that these pages were very similar with FoA. 5/N
All the pages linked in the Related Pages box had been created quite recently, had mostly links to obscure but honest niche web pages and had couple of thousands people liking and following. I started checking Related Pages boxes on all of these pages. 6/N
I found over 70 pages all having similar structure, all of them created recently and all of them telling nothing about their creators. Mind you: nothing illegal or suspicious about them as such. I listed the pages in Google Sheets: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MCmLVG_Z0eLQTq32p13mSdDG3r0irIG43tgZP9MuU4k/edit#gid=0
I’m pretty sure there’s only one purpose for these pages: to publish similar scam status as FoA already had. Ironic of course that Facebook has all of this time had a tool for finding scam related pages: it’s own Related Pages algorithm. 8/N
I've already reported this list to Facebook. Again: there's nothing on those FB pages that's overtly wrong or illegal, so I don't know if Facebook can or will remove them. 9/N
Wrote a blog post (in Finnish) with more links and background: https://medium.com/@Karde/facebookin-sitke%C3%A4-bitcoin-huijariongelma-9eab040b6c14 10/N
Just in case: these scams are huge business. One operation scammed tens of millions of euros last year. https://www.occrp.org/en/fraud-factory/trail-of-broken-lives-leads-to-kyiv-call-center
And one more thing: if I had time and tools, I would analyze the followers/likes of these 70 pages. Each page has several thousands followers, even if they are only couple of days or weeks old. Are they real, paid or zombies? What they could tell about the pages and scams? 12/N
. @hsfi has interviewed Antti Herlin about the scams (in Finnish). Herlin is a major owner of Sanoma and frequently used by scammers to lure people to "invest". Story states that Herlin isn't able to stop scams; so probably no lawsuit against FB from him. https://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000006585823.html
Saw yet another scam status, which led to another 20 or similar pages. I added the pages in to Google Sheets document. Document now contains 94 FB pages. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MCmLVG_Z0eLQTq32p13mSdDG3r0irIG43tgZP9MuU4k/edit#gid=0
Update: list now contains 123 Facebook pages. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MCmLVG_Z0eLQTq32p13mSdDG3r0irIG43tgZP9MuU4k/edit#gid=0
And now 150 pages. It's like fractals: pages about space lead to pages about science which lead to pages about cars which lead to pages about dogs. All identical (all are "magazines"), only subject changes.
Ok, I stopped at 235 pages. Clearly somebody is making these with some sort of plan: today it's baking, tomorrow it's wild animals, day after that it's different cuisines. And then they just sit waiting to be used in a scam. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MCmLVG_Z0eLQTq32p13mSdDG3r0irIG43tgZP9MuU4k/edit#gid=0
Pinging @robleathern , just in case.
All the pages are still available. Including the original Fact's of Animal's which I reported running a scam ad 13 days ago. The ad itself is gone though, according to FB's Ad Library https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=FI&impression_search_field=has_impressions_lifetime&view_all_page_id=111864213930881
Meanwhile in Australia: identical scam using Australian celebrity. "A cybersecurity expert says there has been a 27 per cent increase in online scams over the past three months". https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-10/warning-over-bitcoin-scam-using-celebrities-to-promote-product/12441920
Another kind of scam that appears quite often on my timeline: "Ikea" or "Lidl" offering store credits. Of course it's not Ikea. I report these every time I see them, but first of all reporting is not really as good as it could be.
First, there isn't option for advertiser pretending to be somebody else. And suspicious ad can be several of these things. Is something worse than other?
After reporting I have possibility to check advertisers ad history. Every time it looks like the second pic: no ads running. What's happening here? I just saw the add and reported it.
