Consumer Watchdog Continues Investigation Into Facebook Scammers

Facebook is facing fresh legal action over user-scam on its site, with the ACCC confirming an investigation into the newly launched 'Metaverse'.

The consumer watchdog say the report is in "advanced stages", revealing a probe into money-laundering and misleading pages.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims says the report will observe whether or not the social media platform has done enough to boot scammers off their site.

"We have a very advanced investigation into whether a large digital platform should have taken down scams when they knew they were scams," Mr Sims said.

"I think if you know something's a scam and yet you've got this platform, I think there is an issue there in terms of whether you're misleading the users of your platform.

"Ultimately, that's the essence of consumer law, that you shouldn't mislead consumers."

Through the pandemic, the overall scam figures show Australians have been hit hard. Almost $330 million was lost to online scams last year, double the amount from 2020.

The two most common issues, investment scamming and online dating scamming tricking people into spending for a service that isn't real.

Sims says these digital platforms uphold a large responsibility in ensuring people aren't losing money on their site.

"The platforms try and make out that they're just this billboard sitting in the town square and people can go and put a tack in the wall and put up something, and it has nothing to do with it," Sims said. 

"Those platforms control what's on the platform and what you see by their algorithms. 

"They have a lot of control and they can do more, I think, to spot scams and deal with them because they cost people a hell of a lot of money."

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