Australia’s richest person has taken aim at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, calling on him to do more to combat scam accounts pretending to be her and other celebrities.
Gina Rinehart said in a letter to Meta’s CEO that “numerous scammers” on his social media networks have used her name and likeness to cheat others out of their money.
Ms Rinehart wrote the November 9 letter on behalf of other celebrities such as billionaire real estate developer and Meriton CEO Harry Triguboff and entrepreneur Dick Smith whose identities were also used by scammers.
Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart (pictured), has personally sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking him to take action against fraudulent Facebook posts
Ms Rinehart wrote the letter to Zuckerberg (pictured) on behalf of Harry Triguboff and Dick Smith
‘In recent weeks I have had over 750 scams on Facebook, compared to just one on Twitter (now known as X) in the same period. Therefore, I would appreciate more efforts to address these issues. she said in the letter reported by The Australian.
“More action is needed to prevent scams and deliberately fraudulent content from becoming available and advertised.”
‘Meta must do more (as) innocent Australians are falling victim to job fraud via Facebook.’
Ms Rinehardt claimed she personally wrote the letter after Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, ignored official complaints from her staff.
“According to the National Anti Scams Centre, Australians reported a record $3.1 billion in scam losses in 2022, an increase of 80 per cent on the previous year,” she said.
“The NASC also estimates that approximately 80 percent of all reported scams involve some form of impersonation of a legitimate entity.
“This has happened to me hundreds of times, and my staff can’t keep up; there are so many,” Ms. Rinehart said.
TV personalities Tracy Grimshaw, Karl Stefanovic and David Koch have also recently contacted Meta about not dealing with fraudsters using their identities.
Above is one of hundreds of scam messages impersonating Ms. Rinehardt that she wants to remove
Ms Rinehardt claimed she personally wrote the letter after Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, ignored official complaints from her staff
Cook in September told 2GB’s Ben Fordham that he plans to file lawsuits against social media platforms that fail to remove fraudulent content.
“I am so frustrated by this that I am exploring the possibility of defamation against social media platforms that are running these ads because it hurts me,” the former Sunrise host said.
“People are misled into thinking, ‘I did this because you told me to.’
“It’s all a huge scam using high-profile people, causing serious damage to our reputation.”
Ny Breaking Australia has contacted Meta for comment.