An image of the PM in a recent fake Salvation Army ad. Scammers behind these types of ads often seek to steal people’s personal information.Credit: Meta Ad Library
Meta did not respond to questions about the ongoing scam ads by deadline.
Earlier, the company shared news it had recently taken down 2 million accounts linked to scam centres in South-East Asia and the Middle East. It also confirmed that it had been sharing warnings with Australian Facebook users since October, telling them to “beware of scams using celebrity images to deceive you”.
Sergeant Alexander Kazagrandi, with the Australian Federal Police’s Joint Policing Cybercrime Co-ordination Centre, said scam advertising was prolific in Australia and was being used “more and more extensively by organised criminal groups”.
He warned that these ads were being used not just to recruit victims but to traffic people into South-East Asian scam call centres by offering them an easy way …