The Taiwan Civic Anti-Fraud Association yesterday said it would assist eight people who were scammed by advertisements on Facebook in suing Meta, the first such lawsuit in Taiwan against the company.
The association would help cover the litigation expenses and has filed a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, under the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例), the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法), the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法) and the Civil Code, it said, adding that it was aiming for NT$11.67 million (US$386,066) in compensation for damages, which is 20 percent of the victims’ collective losses of NT$58.37 million.
The advertisements lured investors on Facebook by using the names of well-known people, such as writer Wu Tan-ju (吳淡如), political commentator Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀), Advanced Micro Devices Inc CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) and e-commerce platform founder “Mr 486” (486先生), as well as names of well-known companies, including Cathay Securities Co (國泰證券), it said.
Photo: Wang Kuan-jen, Taipei Times
Association president Hsu Liang-yuan (許良源) cited police data as showing that from September last year to February, the property damage incurred from 22,892 investment scams was about NT$42.7 billion, which accounted for 66 percent of total property losses from all scam cases.
Ninety-four percent of investment fraud victims were exposed to the scam through the Internet, and social media advertisements were the main source, he said, adding that it was Facebook’s failure to review and remove scam advertisements that made the platform a hotbed for scams.
One of the eight people suing Meta, a man known as Mr H, said he had seen an advertisement for a book giveaway from someone he thought was Su on Facebook. He downloaded an investment app that turned out to be fake and was deceived into losing more than US$730,000.
The scammers even lent money to him first to earn his trust, before catching him in the trap, Mr H said.
Facebook should not profit from advertisements while shirking its responsibility of clamping down on fraudulent ads, he said.
Association managing supervisor Lawrence Lee (李禮仲), who is also the convener of the association’s legal committee, said that its team of lawyers, which includes Hsiao Yi-hung (蕭奕弘), Sung Chung-ho (宋重和) and Hsu Yi-ling (徐翌菱), have spent nearly four months preparing for the lawsuit.
About 60 scam victims reached out to the association for advice, and after hearing their stories and learning of their limited resources, the association decided to help eight of them file a lawsuit, Lee said.
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