Facebook general counsel Ted Ullyot joined Washington State attorney general Rob McKenna in Seattle on Thursday to announce a pair of lawsuits aimed at reducing “clickjacking” scams on the popular social networking site.
Both suits are aimed at Adscend Media, LLC, which, according to the Washington AG’s office, is “an ad network that is alleged to develop and encourage others to spread spam through misleading and deceptive tactics.” Facebook filed its suit against Adscend in federal court in the Northern District of California, and McKenna’s office filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle.
The suits accuse the Delaware-based Adscend and its co-owners—Jeremy Bash and Fehzan Ali—of orchestrating viral scams that use Facebook’s network and “like” buttons to spread quickly and direct users to sites selling goods and services, often unrelated to the original content shown on Facebook pages. The Consumer Protection High-Tech Unit, based in the Washington AG’s office, estimates that Adscend’s efforts “at one point. . . lined the defendants’ pockets with up to $1.2 million a month.”
According to a statement from McKenna’s office, the scams targeted in the lawsuits work as follows:
Scammers design Facebook Pages to look like they will offer visitors an opportunity to view salacious or provocative content. They condition viewing this content on completing a series of steps that are designed to lure Facebook users into eventually visiting websites that often deceive them into surrendering their personal information or signing up for expensive mobile subscription services.
First, Facebook users are encouraged to click the ‘Like’ button on the scammers’ Facebook Pages, which then alerts their friends to the existence of the page. Then they are told that they cannot access the content unless they complete an online survey or advertising offer. In one example noted in the complaint, the scammers overlay the Facebook ‘Like’ button with a link that promises to reveal the results of: “This man took a picture of his face every day for 8 years!!” Of course, the promised content often does not exist and the tricked user is then directed through a series of prompts taking them off of Facebook and through a host of unrelated advertising and subscription service offers, where the scammers receive money for each misdirected user.
By announcing the two suits in a joint press conference, Facebook and the Washington AG’s office showcased a coordinated, multi-state effort to combat these types of online scams. “We applaud Facebook for devoting significant technical and legal resources to finding and stopping scams as soon as possible—and often before they even start,” said McKenna at the press conference. “We’re proud to join forces in order to protect Washington consumers.”
Facebook GC Ullyot also used strong rhetoric at the event to describe his company’s actions against Adscend, saying, “Security is an arms race, and that’s why Facebook is committed to constantly improving our consumer safeguards while pursuing and supporting civil and criminal consequences for bad actors.”
In addition to Facebook’s litigious anti-scam efforts, the California-based company also provides detailed descriptions of the many security threats facing its social network—along with steps users can take to safeguard themselves against such threats—at facebook.com/security.
