MPs have warned of an “alarming” growth in fraud in the UK and suggested online giants including Facebook and Google should pay compensation to people duped by scammers operating on their sites.
A report by the Treasury Committee said the government was failing to do enough to stop “pernicious scammers” ripping off innocent consumers with fraudulent online adverts, impersonation scams and dodgy crypto investments.
It was “easy for fraudsters” to place rogue adverts on social media and other internet platforms because they were not legally required to verify advertisers’ backgrounds, the committee said.
Online giants criticised for profiting from anti-scam adverts
The report revealed the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) paid more than £1.1m to online companies, including Google, Twitter, TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, so it could place adverts warning about scams between 2019 and 2021.
The committee said it was “not appropriate” that online companies have been making money both from fraudsters paying to advertise their scams as well as from financial regulators warning about the cons.
Google was paid more than £690,000 by the FCA – which is an independent public body funded by the firms it regulates – while Twitter received more than £161,000, Meta earned more than £364,000 and TikTok was paid £50,000, according…
