Facebook and Instagram Now Have a Problem With Scam Libra Ads

While Facebook is struggling to agree on its crypto project Libra, a wave of fake Libra accounts have come up online, including on Facebook itself.

According to a report by The Washington Post on July 22, nearly a dozen fake Libra pages have circulated across Facebook and its social photo-sharing app Instagram, posing as official entities for the much-discussed digital currency.

Facebook removed Libra scam pages only after alerted by Washington Post.

As said in the report, a number of those fake Facebook and Instagram accounts were removed on July 22 only after The Washington Post reported on them to Facebook.

Elka Looks, communications manager at Calibra, reportedly stated that Facebook removes ads and pages that violate their policies when they become aware of them.

Some of the Libra fakes invited offered to participate in a pre-sale of not-yet-launched Libra coins at a discount, while many others included Facebook's logo, photos of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg or Libra's official marketing materials, the report notes.

One clear example of Libra fakes online is Buylibracoins.com website, which copies Libra logo from official website Libra.org, and offers users to create an account and invest in Libra with major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Facebook eased crypto ads rules one month before Libra white paper.

In early 2018, Facebook broke the news by announcing the ban of cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings-related ads on its platform in a move to prohibit advertising that use "Misleading or deceptive promotional practices."

Damian Collins, a senior official at the British Parliament has recently argued that Libra will be open to massive fraud as t would be created and controlled by Facebook and be inaccessible by anyone outside a "Facebook walled garden."