In November 2019, Facebook sent a cease-and-desist letter to a U.S.-based marketing firm that ran ads using images of celebrities to trick users. As a result, the firm shut down. However, according to a new report in BuzzFeed News this week, many of the company’s remnants are still actively being used to scam people on Facebook.

It’s unclear who exactly is still operating the defunct company’s domains, though Facebook says it is tracking many of the company’s former employees. Of course, the social media giant has a strong incentive to get rid of ads like this that can possibly ruin its users’ lives.

 “We don’t want ads seeking to scam people out of money on Facebook — they aren’t good for people, erode trust in our services and damage our business,” Facebook director of product management Rob Leathern told BuzzFeed News. “To fight this, we work not just to detect and reject the ads themselves, but block advertisers from our services and, in some cases, take them to court. While no enforcement is perfect, we continue to investigate new technologies and methods of stopping these violating ads and the people behind them.”

While Facebook may be acting aggressively to get rid of bad actors, incidents like this illustrate just how difficult it is to actually kill a scam once and for all.

Recommended Resources

The Choice of Tech Experts Worldwide. Try 90 days free of Bitdefender and experience the highest level of digital safety.

Surf the web truly incognito. Try Bitdefender Premium VPN, the ultra-fast VPN that keeps your online identity and activities safe from hackers, ISPs and snoops.

System Mechanic 14 – Make your computer run like new. Winner of 200+ Editor’s Choice awards!