Funder and chairman of the popular personal finance website, MoneySavingExpert, Martin Lewis has decided to start High Court proceedings against social media giant Facebook for not doing enough to stop publishing his name and image along with the fake advertisements of scammers on the website. He clarifies on his blog that it is a personal lawsuit by him to stop his name and reputation being tarnished in these fraud ads which many would have believed have his credibility and lost their money.
The most quoted ads are the get-quick-rich schemes called “Bitcoin code” or “Cloud Trader” which are basically binary trading firms outside the EU. Binary trading has been advised against by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as it can be a dangerous money-losing proposition without expert advice. Martin Lewis runs the famous consumer financial help site along with Money & Mental Health Policy Institute charity and is the presenter of The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV.
He is suing in his name and has announced all the gains from the lawsuit will be paid to anti-scam charities. He intends to clear his name from nearly 50 fake sites which carried his name. As Lewis commented –
“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 placed in me. One lady had over £100,000 taken from her.”
The ads are seen widely due to his image and have a reach of about 50 million people. The ads give false promises, endorsements, linking the user to fake sites. Lewis feels it’s time to take action against the platform as they have failed to crack down on various ads even after being reported repeatedly –
“Even when they are reported, many have been left up for days or weeks. And finally, when they are taken down the scammers just launch a new, nearly identical campaign very soon afterward and the whole rigmarole starts again”.
This misuse of his name has given undue stress and taken time on his part to clarify his stand and clear his name. He feels that Facebook is not doing enough – hiding behind the name of a platform but working like a publisher with revenue generated from these ads which are paying Facebook “to publish, promulgate and promote what are often fraudulent enterprises.”
He is refusing to take this lightly as he is not the only celebrity whose name and face have been misused on Facebook.
Facebook has been under the scanner for failing to clamp down on fake news sites, leakage of user data to Cambridge Analytics and now this new scandal is seen as another failure to protect user identity and fraud.
Following this, the chairman of a parliamentary committee investigating online disinformation, Damian Collins has said that he would urge the online platform to deploy facial recognition technology to block scam ads, an advertisement with celebrities and other possible solutions.