Amid coronavirus lockdown, online scammers increase in its numbers. Through the most popular and used social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, online selling of stolen credit card details, personal info, and even a fake passport showed prevalence these days. Do Facebook and Twitter allow these scamming businesses? A consumer watchdog thinks so.
Twitter and Facebook rumor allowing stolen credit cards to be sold online
As reported via BBC, several posts of stolen credit card and personal information online selling are still available on Facebook and Twitter. Contrary to what these platforms' claim of a stronger fight against scammers.
One example that consumer watchdog Which? has seen is a Twitter user trying to sell a $14,000 worth of credit card for only over $100. Shockingly, this tweet wasn't even found in the deepest or hidden Twitter threads. The agency claims that they had found the tweet by only searching for keywords related to 'fraud.' Showing how easy for a person to look for stolen personal info online.
Aside from Twitter, Facebook also said to be catering online selling of stolen personal info. In one Facebook post, Which? found stolen personal details of an unknown man with his birth date, address, mobile number, credit card, and other bank details-- being sold for lower prices.
Which? said that they already reported the post. However, Facebook refused to delete it since the system doesn't see any violation of the post based on their 'community standards.'
The post was said to be live for at least four months before Facebook finally deleted it.
The consumer watchdog reported that over 50 profiles, pages, and groups on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were seen with different offerings of stolen credit card details, and even Netflix accounts.
"It's astonishing that social media sites make it so easy for criminals to trade people's personal and financial information, particularly as fraud is such a prevalent crime that can have devastating consequences," explains Which? Money editor Jenny Ross.
What do Facebook and Twitter have to say?
Facebook explains on BBC that the said post reported by Which? had already been deleted. The platform also insists that they strictly ban all posts of scam-like online selling to protect their users from being a victim of one.
"Fraudulent activity is not tolerated on our platforms, and we have removed the groups and profiles flagged to us by Which?... for violating our policies," said a Facebook representative. "We continue to invest in people and technology to identify and remove fraudulent content, and we urge people to report any suspicious content to us so we can take action."
Twitter also dismayed the allegations against them and said that they do not promote any kinds of schemes on their platform.
"We're constantly adapting to bad actors' evolving methods and will continue to iterate and improve upon our policies as the industry evolves," said Twitter.
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