Creador Threatens Meta With Lawsuit Over Delay In Resolving Scammer Issues
Creador's founder Brahmal Vasudevan revealed that scammers have impersonated his company and its non-profit arm, Creador Foundation.
By Sukhbir Cheema — 02 Jul 2024, 11:40 AM
Scammers have been impersonating prominent personalities and organisations across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Creador is the recent latest company to fall victim
In a press statement on 1 July, Creador's founder Brahmal Vasudevan revealed that scammers have impersonated his company and its non-profit arm, Creador Foundation.
Creador is a private equity firm that provides financial support to Malaysian entrepreneurs. Due to this, Vasudevan said that scammers have been impersonating Creador to promote investment seminars or provide investment advice.
Nearly all of these posts are marked as sponsored across Meta's three major platforms.
Creador said that many Malaysians, especially the elderly, have been losing their hard-earned money to these scammers
Brahmal slammed Meta for allegedly failing to protect its users.
"We are concerned that Meta is not cracking down hard enough. Allowing these sponsored posts to be published is unacceptable," Brahmal said.
"Meta has profited from these frauds by allowing sponsored posts which impersonate Creador and other organisations and well-known figures," he added.
Creador has issued a letter of demand to Meta, warning that if the tech giant doesn't take the issue seriously, legal action will be taken
"Creador has already issued a letter of demand to Meta, and if it does not take this seriously, we will take legal action,” Brahmal warned in the statement.
Creador had first alerted Meta to the scammy posts in March. The posts contained links that directed users to a WhatsApp chat where a scammer impersonated Brahmal.
These links, he said, were designed to create the impression that Creador was promising an initial public offering. In reality, it's a website directing users to enter their bank details to transfer funds to accounts not affiliated with Creador.
Creador said Meta hasn't acted fast enough to remove the scammy posts across its platforms
"Meta has not acted quickly enough to remove all such posts despite Creador's reports and complaints through the channels on Facebook and Instagram, which found its own Facebook page had been suspended instead with no reason given," Brahmal explained.
"Meta is not responsive enough to complaints of impersonation and scams. Its system for reporting such cases is ineffective. Meta has failed to even enforce its own Community Standards which prohibit impersonation," he added.
Vasudevan said Meta should invest in technologies that can systematically shut down or delete scam advertisements to ensure they're not repeatedly posted.
