Key Points
- Gina Rinehart has written a letter to Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg.
- The mining magnate says she's concerned about Facebook scams using her picture.
- She's not the only prominent Australian taking issue with such scams on Facebook.
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart wants Mark Zuckerberg to stop the proliferation of financial scams using her image on Facebook.
In a letter sent by the Australian billionaire to the social media boss, seen by SBS News, Rinehart wrote of her concern with the "increasing prevalence of scams and intentionally deceptive content" on the platform.
In examples of scams featured in her complaint, pictures of Rinehart are accompanied by misleading captions about false investment opportunities or other financial scams. Fake audio messages purporting to be from Rinehart also featured.
In her letter, Rinehart said her staff could not keep up with the "alarming persistence of scams" popping up on Facebook.
"In the last few weeks, I have had more than 750 scams on Facebook, as opposed to only one on Twitter in the same period," she wrote.
Rinehart said one scam which wrongly used a picture of her with media personality Tracy Grimshaw in a bogus story about investment in a software platform had been on the site since January despite being reported.
An example of a Facebook scam using Gina Rinehart's image which forms part of a complaint the mining magnate has made to Meta. Credit: Supplied/Hancock Prospecting
"These scams have also deceptively involved the names of high-profile media personalities from Channel 7, Sky, Channel 9, and others, wrongly using them in scams in efforts to scam money from innocent people."
Meta said it was tackling scams with new "machine learning techniques" and trained reviewers to identify content and accounts that violate its policies.
"We encourage people to use our in-app reporting tools when they see any suspicious activity. We encourage those who have fallen victim to scams to reach out to their local law enforcement agency," a spokesperson said in a statement to SBS News.
Andrew Forrest launches legal action against Meta
Rinehart is not the only Australian billionaire who's complained to Meta about such scams.
Fortescue Metals Group boss Andrew Forrest has launched criminal proceedings against Facebook claiming it failed to stop clickbait advertising scams using his image.
The action alleges the tech giant breached federal anti-money laundering laws and is being taken in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia, Forrest's home state.
The scam ads use the mining magnate's image and other well-known Australians to promote cryptocurrency schemes, he claims, and have appeared on the platform since 2019.
Forrest has made repeated requests asking Facebook to prevent the use of his image, including an open letter to Zuckerberg in November 2019.
A special hearing over the case is listed on Monday at the Perth Magistrates Court.
Additional reporting by AAP.
