From April 10 to Friday last week, Meta Platforms Inc and Google Taiwan removed a combined 1,363 scam investment advertisements from their platforms, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday, as it warned of the continuing prevalence of fraudulent information.
That compares with the 39 scam ads they deleted a month earlier, the commission said.
During the period, the commission detected 1,615 ads that were highly likely to be scams to Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and Meta removed about 83 percent of them, or 1,338 ads, it said.
Photo: Tyrone Su, Reuters
The commission found 105 suspicious ads on Google during the same period, with Google deleting 25 ads, or 24 percent of the total, it said.
Even though Google has a lower cancelation ratio, the company is willing to cooperate with the commission in fighting fraud and conducts an internal examination before removing suspicious posts, the commission said.
The scam ads mostly feature fake endorsements by celebrities or executives of big financial companies as well as stock analyses, and invite platform visitors to join messaging groups, the commission said.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) chairman Tsai Hung-tu (蔡宏圖), Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co (國泰投信) chairman Jeff Chang (張錫), SinoPac Financial lead economist Jack Huang (黃蔭基) and CTBC Bank retail banking CEO Amy Yang (楊淑惠) have been featured in the fake ads, data showed.
Besides partnering with online platforms, the commission said it is to tighten the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act (證券投資信託及顧問法) to curb investment misinformation.
Advertisements must not entice people to invest or guarantee returns, use the name of celebrities and other people or organizations without their consent, while companies or individuals must use their real names when applying to post ads on online platforms, the commission said.
Online platforms would be held liable if advertisements are found to be fraudulent and lead to losses for consumers, it said.
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