Why doesn't Facebook auto block scam accounts masquerading as real pages?

5 points by casualbob_uk 5y ago ↗ HN

Virtually every post I see from an established Facebook page, ie Binance, Yield.app, celebrities, has a comment from a scam account with the same page name and logo, passing off as the original account, saying there's a Bitcoin giveaway.

Pretending to be the original page, they say if you send them Bitcoin, they'll send back three times as much. It's always followed by comments to back it up saying "wow, it really worked".

I'd go as far as to say this is an epidemic on Facebook and there are even people in the news being scammed by these exact setups.

Surely Facebook can automate a fix for this? It's straight up fraud and grinds my gears every single day.

3 comments

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Nextgrid 5y ago ↗

Facebook is not held liable for this, the fake accounts still contribute to their metrics and people "engage" with them so why would they change anything?

is_true 5y ago ↗

I contacted google about fake google my business reviews and they told me that every opinion counts.

I guess that after so many failed attempts at a social media sites they want to keep spirits high and reviews fake.

Trias11 5y ago ↗

It's similar to why Amazon won't clean spammy fake comments, reviews and won't remove fake products. It's adds to their bottom line.

Same with all large plartforms where any engagement or transaction adds to their bottom line, even if it's to the detriment of ligitimate users.