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Margaret (not her real name) is a retiree who lives in Buckinghamshire. She was recently conned out of £250 when she fell victim to fake advert on Instagram, which is also owned by Meta.
She had been tempted to click on a link to a fictitious ITV article in which presenter Robert Peston (or rather, a scammer pretending it was him), chats about an investment opportunity he had come across. Margaret who trusts Mr Peston and the ITV brand decided to invest.
In addition to paying the £250, Margaret sent off pictures of her passport, and both sides of her credit card. She immediately started getting phone calls.
“It was someone with an American accent welcoming me and saying my money was already making money,” she tells me.
The phone calls kept coming, as did a torrent of emails. Margaret became suspicious, particularly when they started asking her about her income and savings, and when she intended to invest more money.
“I contacted my bank and was refunded but it didn’t stop the scammers.”
Margaret still receives daily calls, and even started getting them from someone purporting to be from the US National Security Agency promising to help her investigate the scam.
“My own mental health is being impacted and I believe I am at risk, in particular identity theft and indeed potential monetary theft,” she says. “They are so mega persistent, and are dangerous pests.”
It is an issue that UK consumer watchdog Which? has been looking into.
“Malicious advertisers may mask web links or impersonate trusted brands such as the BBC to evade online platforms’ reporting systems, and people often don’t know they’re looking at a scam or a deepfake until it’s too late,” says Rocio Concha, its director of policy and advocacy.
“It should not fall on consumers to protect themselves from this fraudulent content online. Ofcom must use its powers under the Online Safety Act [which was passed late last year] to ensure that online platforms are verifying the legitimacy of their advertisers to prevent scammers reaching consumers.”
Ofcom said in a statement that tackling fraud “is a priority” for the regulator.
“The UK’s new online safety laws will be an important part of making it harder for fraudsters to operate,” it added. “Under the new laws, online services will be required to assess the risk of their users being harmed by illegal content on their platforms – including fraud, take appropriate steps to protect their users, and remove illegal content when they identify it or are told about it.”
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