Afghans Targeted By Facebook Visa And Immigration Scams

Facebook scammers often seek to capitalize on crises around the world by either soliciting sympathy or taking advantage of victims. The latter is the case in Afghanistan, where humanitarian reports indicate that people are being targeted by insidious Facebook scams offering them help to flee the country.

According to experts, these scam posts include promises to help people pay for education in other countries and offers of visas that turn out to be fraudulent. There are also active smuggling rings on Facebook which may help people flee the country but often leave them stranded with no resources or support. And tragically, these posts continue to go viral despite many warnings about them.

“You’re just constantly reporting one [scam], and several others appear in their place,” Afghanistan migration expert Samim Ahmadi told The New Humanitarian. “You could spend weeks on end doing nothing else, and there will always be new ones all the time.”

While it’s important to help educate people on the ground about the dangers that these scams pose, it’s also on Meta to rein in this content. There’s no reason such blatant scams and ads should be allowed to flourish, so hopefully the company finds a way to crack down harder on them ASAP.




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