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From The Times.
Should be an interesting case.
Should be an interesting case.
Facebook sued by personal finance guru Martin Lewis over ‘scam’ adverts
The personal finance expert Martin Lewis is suing Facebook for allowing scammers to use his name and image in fake adverts on the social network.
Mr Lewis will lodge an action for defamation against the company today, arguing that as a publisher it is responsible for the false ads. The case is thought to be the first of its kind.
The broadcaster said that he had been deeply upset over cases in which people had lost up to £100,000. “It’s so distressing, when all my life I have campaigned against this kind of thing,” Mr Lewis said.
Facebook has published more than 50 fake Martin Lewis adverts in the past year, seen by millions of people in Britain. The adverts are often scams and many have pictures of Mr Lewis and bear his name, alongside false promises or endorsements. Some then link to fake articles.
Facebook would eventually remove them but Mr Lewis, founder of the consumer site MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “It can take a couple of weeks and another one just pops up again. Why should I have to police this?”
The most prevalent are get-rich-quick schemes titled “Bitcoin code” or “Cloud Trader”, which are fronts for binary trading firms outside the EU.
Facebook sued by personal finance guru Martin Lewis over ‘scam’ adverts
Binary trading is a financially risky, near-certain money-loser, which the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) strongly warns against. They are financial options in which the payout is either a fixed sum or nothing at all.
“Enough is enough. I’ve been fighting for over a year to stop Facebook letting scammers use my name and face to rip off vulnerable people — yet it continues. I feel sick each time I hear of another victim being conned because of trust they wrongly thought they were placing in me. One lady had over £100,000 taken from her.”
He said that he was receiving up to five messages a day on social media from people who had seen the adverts.
“I don’t do adverts. I’ve told Facebook that. Any ad with my picture or name in is without my permission. I’ve asked it not to publish them, or at least to check their legitimacy with me before publishing. This shouldn’t be difficult — after all, it’s a leader in face and text recognition. Yet it simply continues to repeatedly publish these adverts and then relies on me to report them, once the damage has been done.”
Mr Lewis, who presents a show on ITV, is seeking exemplary damages but says that any money awarded would go to anti-scam charities: “I am not doing this for profit.” He said that he hoped not to have his day in court as his aim was that companies such as Facebook would agree a system of notification where they would contact the subject of an advertisement to ensure that it was genuine and with consent.
The problem went beyond his own case, he added. “I’m not the only public face this has happened to. It’s time Facebook was made to take responsibility. It claims to be a platform, not a publisher, yet this isn’t just a post on a web forum, it is being paid to publish, promote what are often fraudulent enterprises. My hope is this lawsuit will force it to change its system. Nothing else has worked. People need protection.
“And of course, on a personal note, as well as the huge amount of time, stress and effort it takes to continually combat these scams, this whole episode has been extremely depressing — to see my reputation besmirched by such a big company, out of an unending greed to keep raking in its ad cash.”
Mark Lewis, a solicitor with Seddons law firm who is bringing the case, said: “Facebook is not above the law — it cannot hide outside the UK and think that it is untouchable. Exemplary damages are being sought. This means we will ask the court to ensure they are substantial enough that Facebook can’t simply see paying out damages as just the ‘cost of business’ and carry on regardless. It needs to be shown that the price of causing misery is very high.”
A Facebook spokesman said: “We do not allow adverts which are misleading or false on Facebook and have explained to Martin Lewis that he should report any adverts that infringe his rights and they will be removed. We are in direct contact with his team, offering to help and promptly investigating their requests, and only last week confirmed that several adverts and accounts that violated our advertising policies had been taken down.”
The personal finance expert Martin Lewis is suing Facebook for allowing scammers to use his name and image in fake adverts on the social network.
Mr Lewis will lodge an action for defamation against the company today, arguing that as a publisher it is responsible for the false ads. The case is thought to be the first of its kind.
The broadcaster said that he had been deeply upset over cases in which people had lost up to £100,000. “It’s so distressing, when all my life I have campaigned against this kind of thing,” Mr Lewis said.
Facebook has published more than 50 fake Martin Lewis adverts in the past year, seen by millions of people in Britain. The adverts are often scams and many have pictures of Mr Lewis and bear his name, alongside false promises or endorsements. Some then link to fake articles.
Facebook would eventually remove them but Mr Lewis, founder of the consumer site MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “It can take a couple of weeks and another one just pops up again. Why should I have to police this?”
The most prevalent are get-rich-quick schemes titled “Bitcoin code” or “Cloud Trader”, which are fronts for binary trading firms outside the EU.
Facebook sued by personal finance guru Martin Lewis over ‘scam’ adverts
Binary trading is a financially risky, near-certain money-loser, which the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) strongly warns against. They are financial options in which the payout is either a fixed sum or nothing at all.
“Enough is enough. I’ve been fighting for over a year to stop Facebook letting scammers use my name and face to rip off vulnerable people — yet it continues. I feel sick each time I hear of another victim being conned because of trust they wrongly thought they were placing in me. One lady had over £100,000 taken from her.”
He said that he was receiving up to five messages a day on social media from people who had seen the adverts.
“I don’t do adverts. I’ve told Facebook that. Any ad with my picture or name in is without my permission. I’ve asked it not to publish them, or at least to check their legitimacy with me before publishing. This shouldn’t be difficult — after all, it’s a leader in face and text recognition. Yet it simply continues to repeatedly publish these adverts and then relies on me to report them, once the damage has been done.”
Mr Lewis, who presents a show on ITV, is seeking exemplary damages but says that any money awarded would go to anti-scam charities: “I am not doing this for profit.” He said that he hoped not to have his day in court as his aim was that companies such as Facebook would agree a system of notification where they would contact the subject of an advertisement to ensure that it was genuine and with consent.
The problem went beyond his own case, he added. “I’m not the only public face this has happened to. It’s time Facebook was made to take responsibility. It claims to be a platform, not a publisher, yet this isn’t just a post on a web forum, it is being paid to publish, promote what are often fraudulent enterprises. My hope is this lawsuit will force it to change its system. Nothing else has worked. People need protection.
“And of course, on a personal note, as well as the huge amount of time, stress and effort it takes to continually combat these scams, this whole episode has been extremely depressing — to see my reputation besmirched by such a big company, out of an unending greed to keep raking in its ad cash.”
Mark Lewis, a solicitor with Seddons law firm who is bringing the case, said: “Facebook is not above the law — it cannot hide outside the UK and think that it is untouchable. Exemplary damages are being sought. This means we will ask the court to ensure they are substantial enough that Facebook can’t simply see paying out damages as just the ‘cost of business’ and carry on regardless. It needs to be shown that the price of causing misery is very high.”
A Facebook spokesman said: “We do not allow adverts which are misleading or false on Facebook and have explained to Martin Lewis that he should report any adverts that infringe his rights and they will be removed. We are in direct contact with his team, offering to help and promptly investigating their requests, and only last week confirmed that several adverts and accounts that violated our advertising policies had been taken down.”
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