Meta’s plea to dismiss millionaire Andrew Forrests’s appeal on bogus crypto ads has been rejected by a U.S. judge. According to Reuters, Australian mining millionaire Andrew Forrest had filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, claiming that the company promoted bogus Bitcoin and other fraudulent investments on Facebook.
However, a U.S. judge denied Meta Platforms’ request to have the action dismissed. Australia’s second-richest individual may attempt to demonstrate that Meta’s carelessness in permitting the advertisements violated its need to do business in a commercially reasonable manner, according to a ruling made on Monday by U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts in San Jose, California.
Forrest may also attempt to demonstrate that Meta, and not only the con artists responsible for the fake advertisements, was the one using his name and likeness. According to Pitts, “Dr. Forrest says that Meta made more money from advertisements featuring his likeness than it would have if the ads hadn’t.“
Forrest said in a statement that Pitts’ ruling was the first in which a social media corporation lost its ability to use Section 230 immunity in a civil lawsuit involving its advertising business in the United States. Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act immunizes companies from liability as a publisher of third-party content.
Bogus Crypto Ads See Rise in Market
Advertisements on social media platforms like X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc are being used by cybercriminals more often to promote bogus airdrops, websites with malicious scripts that can steal cryptocurrency assets from connected wallets, and other scams. These consist of links to phishing pages and Telegram channels that advertise pump-and-dump scams.
Additionally, threat actors are using verified accounts more frequently to promote cryptocurrency schemes. Earlier, a Web3 security company called CertiK and an American cybersecurity organization called Mandiant accounts were compromised to promote a cryptocurrency drainer.
Attackers shared a cryptocurrency scam by pretending to be a Phantom crypto wallet using Mandiant’s X account. Users were tricked by the scam’s promise of free cryptocurrency airdrops. However, consumers were supposed to be sent to a website containing malicious malware capable of emptying their cryptocurrency wallets when they clicked the button to claim the airdrop.
