Meta removes AI-generated celebrity scam ads in Australia partnership
Meta removed over 8,000 AI-generated celebrity investment scam ads from Facebook and Instagram following a new partnership with Australian banks to combat "celeb bait" fraud. Australians lost A$43.4 million to such scams from January to August 2024, prompting the collaboration and government threats of fines for companies failing to address the problem.
What happened
Meta removed more than 8,000 AI-generated celebrity investment scam ads from Facebook and Instagram following the launch of the Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (Fire) in April 2024, a dedicated reporting channel with the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange. Since the pilot launch, Meta received 102 reports and removed over 9,000 scam pages in total.
The scams used artificially generated or manipulated images of celebrities including David Koch, Gina Rinehart, Anthony Albanese, Larry Emdur, and Guy Sebastian to promote fraudulent investment schemes.
Reported impact
From January to August 2024, Australians reported A$43.4 million in losses from scams on social media to Scamwatch, with close to A$30 million relating to fake investment scams. Australian scam reports jumped by nearly one-fifth in 2023, with losses totalling A$2.7 billion according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Index analysis
Meta's director of threat disruption noted that high-value signals from banks could help identify wider fraud and scam activity. The partnership involved seven banks—ANZ, Bendigo Bank, CBA, HSBC, Macquarie, NAB, and Westpac—and built on the existing Intel Loop information sharing service run by the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange.
Governance controls
The Australian government planned to introduce anti-scam legislation by the end of 2024, proposing fines of up to A$50 million for social media, financial, and telecommunications companies failing to meet their obligations to combat scams. Meta is defending a 2022 lawsuit brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission accusing the company of failing to stop dissemination of cryptocurrency advertisements using celebrity images, and a separate civil lawsuit in California brought by mining billionaire Andrew Forrest over alleged failure to tackle scams using his likeness.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.