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Australian Watchdog Goes After Meta For Crypto Ads

By  |  February 6, 2022

Australia’s Consumer and Competition (ACCC) watchdog is investigating Facebook’s parent company Meta for a long running series of fraudulent cryptocurrency advertisements of the platform.

The news comes just a day after Cointelegraph reported that billionaire businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest was pursuing criminal action against the social media giant for allegedly serving users crypto scam ads and fake articles that used his name and likeness.

Numerous other high profile celebrities from Hugh Jackman to Nicole Kidman have been fraudulently employed to draw users into investment scams.

The ACCC alleges that Meta allowed the crypto scammers to breach Australian consumer law, defrauding victims hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In Thursday comments to The Australian, ACCC chair Rod Sims said that although their investigation shares similarities with Forrest’s case, the “ACCC’s investigation is separate and concerns different questions of law.”

While Forrest’s case concerns potential breaches of Australia’s Commonwealth Criminal Code, the ACCC will be examining whether Meta has “raised concerns” under the Australia Consumer Law.

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