Attorney General Jeff Jackson Urges Meta to Crack Down on Facebook Investment Scams

RALEIGH – Attorney General Jeff Jackson and 41 bipartisan attorneys general are urging Meta to crack down on deceptive Facebook ads luring users into so-called “pump-and-dump” investment schemes and conning them out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Scammers are using fake Facebook ads to trick people into losing millions in scam investments,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “It’s Meta’s job to take these ads down and make sure their platform is as safe as possible for users everywhere. Meta needs to act now.”

These fake investment ads frequently use images of well-known financial figures like Warren Buffet, Cathie Wood, and Elon Musk to make users think they’re legitimate. They’ll advertise stocks with outrageous returns, free consultations, or offer to give investment advice. Clicking on the ads directs the users to join a WhatsApp group, where the scammers continue the scheme by urging victims to buy stocks to rapidly inflate the share prices. After “pumping up” the price of the stock, the scammers will “dump” their shares, causing the prices to fall and leaving victims unable to get their money back. An example of one of these deceptive ads is below:

The attorneys general are asking Meta to either strengthen its advertisement review practices to prevent these ads from being shown to Facebook users or remove all investment ads from the platform.

Attorney General Jackson is joined in sending this letter to Meta by the attorneys general of Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,  Georgia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Virgin Islands, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.

You can read the letter to Meta here.

You can learn more about how to avoid scams and be safe online here. If you think you may have been a victim of a scam, you can file a complaint with NCDOJ here or by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM.

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