Global: US Lawmakers Seek Details of Meta’s Crypto Fraud Prevention Plan

Some lawmakers in the US senate have sought detailed information on how tech company, Meta protects users from cryptocurrency fraud.

The lawmakers, who expressed concern over rising cryptocurrency scams that have become rampant on Meta said: “that Meta provides a breeding ground for cryptocurrency fraud that causes significant harm to consumers,”.

The Senators included Cory A. Booker, Dianne Feinstein, Robert Menendez, Sherrod Brown, Bernard Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.

The letter addressed to the chairman and CEO of Meta; Mark Zuckerberg asked the company to respond by Oct. 24.

“We are concerned that Meta provides a breeding ground for cryptocurrency fraud that causes significant harm to consumers.

“While crypto scams are prevalent across social media, several of Meta’s sites are particularly popular hunting grounds for scammers,”

“Among consumers who reported being scammed out of cryptocurrency on a social media website, 32% identified the scam as having originated on Instagram, 26% on Facebook, and 9% on Whatsapp.” the letter read.

The lawmakers, therefore, sought an explanation of the measures being taken by the company to protect users from such fraudulent acts.

“For each of Meta’s social media platforms, the questions include how the company finds and removes crypto scammers, educates and warns users about crypto scams, and assists victims of fraudulent crypto schemes. The senators also asked how Meta verifies that crypto ads are not scams and what regulatory licenses are required to advertise on its platforms. Moreover, they asked to what extent Meta collaborates with law enforcement to track down scammers.”