Many of these scams originate on social media platforms \u2014 led by Meta\u2019s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp \u2014 which are actively partnering with scammers to rip you off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hardly a fair fight. Social media companies know what you watch, like and search for, and they sell access to that data so scammers can use it against you. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example: the platforms know your family member is battling cancer, so they sell that information to scammers, who then inundate your relatives with debunked medical advice and promises to cure them with fake medicines. Just provide a Social Security number, Medicare number, and bank account \u2014 and their life savings have disappeared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Spam](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2247785336.jpg\" "\\"Op-ed")
Many of these scams originate on social media platforms \u2014 led by Meta\u2019s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp \u2014 which are actively partnering with scammers to rip you off, according to state Sen. Leroy Comrie and Assembly Member Clyde Vanel.Photo via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Social media platforms have promised to crack down wherever possible. In reality, scams are now an integral part of the business model: Meta netted $16 billion from scams in 2024, equivalent to 10% of the company\u2019s total revenue. Internal documents show the company restricted its own moderators from taking down fraudulent posts that threatened more than 0.15% of their annual revenue, and reportedly allowed suspicious advertisers to accrue dozens of \u201cstrikes\u201d before banning their accounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The stealing is bad enough, but the avalanche of scams is actually making it harder for the government to get help to people who need it. The Social Security Administration recently warned about a government imposter scheme falsely accusing seniors of committing crimes, and scammers were caught spending $49 million on Meta last year to run over 150,000\u00a0AI-generated videos of prominent U.S. politicians promoting fake government benefits \u2014 all to trick users into sharing their personal information. <\/p>\n
A new report this month from the Center for Countering Digital Hate showed Meta allowed repeat scammers to target thousands of seniors\u00a0with Medicare scam ads, for which Meta made nearly $15 million. Despite repeatedly claiming to limit and remove millions of scam ads, the report found Meta allowed one scammer to continue posting ads after 1,335 policy violations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As long as Meta and others continue to make billions on these scams, we cannot count on them to police themselves.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where our bill, the Fraudulent Social Media Advertising Prevention Act (<\/a>S.8605\/A.1105)<\/a> comes in. This first-in-the-nation legislation would stop social media companies from profiting from fraud and force them to finally crack down instead of looking the other way. It would force\u00a0companies to verify who is actually buying ads on their platforms, allow users to report scam ads, and do more to detect and report fraud \u2014 all of which social media companies have refused to do voluntarily.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every day that lawmakers continue not to act is another day that scammers will have free rein to drain our savings, steal identities, and exploit everyday New Yorkers. This bill would bring the era of lawless social media scams to an end, and show social media giants that New York will no longer be a safe harbor for fraud.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lawmakers must send a clear message that profiting from deception and facilitating crimes is unacceptable. Just as we have led the way in dismantling organized crime, New York can lead the fight against professional scammers by standing up to the social media giants that have turned fraud into a booming business.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leroy Comrie<\/strong> is a State Senator and Chairman of the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions. Clyde Vanel<\/strong> is an Assemblymember and Chair of the Banks Committee and Internet and New Technology Subcommittee.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But this isn\u2019t some accident. Scammers are getting far more sophisticated, operating more like organized criminal groups with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":832831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,341554,89735,320617,22504,341555,1066,30529,53091,563,340,405,403,341556,5226,5225,5228,5227,341557,341558,341559,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,4730],"class_list":["post-832830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-artificial-intelligence-scams","tag-consumer-protection","tag-cryptocurrency-scams","tag-data-privacy","tag-digital-crime","tag-facebook","tag-fraud-prevention","tag-identity-theft","tag-instagram","tag-meta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-legislation","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-online-scams","tag-scam-advertising","tag-social-media-fraud","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-whatsapp"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}