We were asked by The Times newspaper to help them with a story about Facebook scam adverts.
Our senior partner Martin Richardson spoke to the newspaper and they interviewed two of our clients who told their story.
Facebook fraud is rife in the UK with a report by Lloyds bank claiming that in the UK a scam happens every six minutes on the platform.
One of our clients told how he had lost £254,000 after being sucked into a Facebook advert that featured a deepfake of money guru Martin Lewis.
The victim spoke on the condition of anonymity to the newspaper and told how the scam had left him in huge debts as he had taken out loans to help him fund the bogus investment opportunity.
Another client told how a property investment scheme meant he had lost £20,000.
We are helping both of these clients to recover money from these Facebook scams.
Mr Richardson told The Times: “We estimate that at least a third of the cases that we take on originate from adverts shown on Facebook and Instagram.
“This seems to be particularly true for investment fraud. It appears that once someone has shown an interest on social media about investment opportunities they are more likely to be shown scam adverts.
“Similarly, if they have been defrauded and are looking to recover their funds they are more likely to be presented with scam recovery adverts.
“I can’t imagine any other outlet in the UK being allowed to present so many fraudulent, targeted adverts. If a newspaper or TV channel was receiving a significant percentage of its income by showing fraudulent adverts there would, rightly, be calls for it to be shut down.
“We see first hand the way these scams are ruining people’s lives, leading to family breakups, depression, severe anxiety and financial ruin. Fraud is endemic in this country and no one is grasping the nettle. There needs to be urgent reform to stop social media firms from inadvertently helping to facilitate scams.”
Read The Times story: ‘I lost £254,000 to a Facebook scam’
