‘Illegal and misleading’: More Aussie celebs used in Facebook scams despite court action

No, Jimmy Barnes will not sell you Bitcoin: celebrity scam ads soar on Facebook even as the social network is taken to court.

Millions of Australians are being targeted by Facebook scams fronted by unknowing celebrities despite an ongoing Federal Court case against the crime wave.

A News Corp investigation found a long list of prominent Aussies, from Jimmy Barnes to James Packer and stars of MasterChef and The Project are still being used as bait by criminals with obviously fake profiles.

Even one person calling themselves “bread” with nothing but photos of baked goods on their Facebook profile was able to place Bitcoin scam ads fronted by Karl Stefanovic.

MasterChef judge Andy Allen is one of many Australian celebrities whose names and photos are being used to promote Bitcoin scams on Facebook.

Experts have called for “regulatory change” to force social media giants to rein in the criminals after years of failing to take action despite skyrocketing consumer losses to investment scams.

News Corp identified a long list of active Bitcoin scam ads on Facebook, reaching millions of users at the same time as Australia’s consumer watchdog pursued a Federal Court case against the activity.

Celebrities used as bait for the scams included current and former morning show presenters David Koch, Samantha Armytage and Edwina Bartholomew, as well as comedian Adam Hills, radio host Carrie Bickmore, and MasterChef’s Andy Allen and Curtis Stone.

Even James Packer and Gina Rinehart were exploited to promote get-rich-quick cryptocurrency schemes, and fans of Jimmy Barnes were enticed to click with an investment ad for his “farewell”.

A screenshot from a scam advertisement on Facebook using Jimmy Barnes’ image.

Barnes’ manager John Watson said the singer was angry about the “illegal and misleading ads” that have allowed “scammers to prosper,” and said the singer had never endorsed any investment products.

“Social media platforms seem curiously unable, or unwilling, to do anything about the harmful content of the advertising that they sell,” he said.

“We all need to understand that the consumer protection rules which apply to traditional media advertising are not currently being followed by many online operators.”

Many of the scams were placed using new Facebook profiles that should have been easy to detect, while others were placed using verified pages that appeared to have been hacked.

A Meta company spokesperson said the scams were a “violation of our policies” and encouraged Facebook users to report fake accounts and scam attempts on its platform.

“We use technology to detect and block scam ads and work to get ahead of scammers’ attempts to evade our detection systems,” the spokesperson said.

The scams remained active despite two ongoing court cases against Meta in Australia, including one from Dr Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest in the Western Australian Magistrates Court.

Meta has so far refused to appear to face a charge of criminal recklessness, and the matter has been adjourned until June 17.

Morning TV host David Koch’s name and image is used in many scam ads on Facebook.

Mr Forrest said he took the action after repeated requests for Facebook to remove scams bearing his name.

“I’m very serious about preventing bullying, and I’m very serious about doing whatever small part I can do to protect the innocent from exploitation,” he said.

Australian consumers lost $18.3 million to social media investment scams between January and April 2022, and $26 million in 2021.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also launched legal action against Meta over the scams in March, alleging the company benefited from the ads, served them to users most likely to engage, and “should have been doing more to prevent” them. Evidence is due in the case by June 8.

Swinburne University social media senior lecturer Dr Belinda Barnet said it was “unbelievable” that Facebook hadn’t taken action to detect and remove the scams from its platform, and new laws were needed.

“I don’t think Facebook is going to do anything about it until they’re legislatively obligated to do so. Asking them nicely isn’t working,” she said.

“We can’t expect people to take this on individually — we need regulatory change.”

Dr Barnet said the social network’s algorithm would be able to detect ads of this kind, as the company had done in other areas, including child abuse.

Originally published as ‘Illegal and misleading’: More Aussie celebs used in Facebook scams despite court action