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Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

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Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#201

Post by zahlman »

seelmobile wrote: post #155
stusmall wrote: post #129

Once I got an Instagram ad for buying ketamine that just linked to a telegram channel. They didn't even bother being coy or using mispelling or slang. A simple keyword search to flag for more review would have caught it. I can't even wrap my head around what internal controls exist when something like that makes it out to users.

The bad actor serves a benign ad to the ad review system, and only serves the scam to real users. It's called "cloaking" - an interesting (but a bit depressing) topic to explore.

So the ad review system is just requesting the ad from the advertiser, and not ever bothering to disguise itself? Didn't we have this shit figured out for brick-and-mortar restaurant reviews decades ago?

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#202

Post by lostapathy »

9rx wrote: post #143
noir_lord wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So by your standards, it's totally fine for Lenovo to use the laptop you bought from them to mine crypto a year after you bought it from them because the necessary hardware to enable that (it having a GPU) was installed at the time. I mean it's a viewpoint, it's a certifiably bonkers one but of all the viewpoints it definitely is one.

Much like the F-150, if the license agreement between you and Lenovo allow Lenovo to do so, yes. I mean, if you didn't want that, you wouldn't have agreed to it, right? You are allowed to say no.

The "you can just not agree to it" argument is so bogus. You can only buy good/services that are for sale, and when they all have the same crappy terms, you have to agree to somebody's to live in the modern world.

That's like the people who claim only idiots live in HOAs but neglect the fact that, in some markets, nearly all real estate worth living in is covered by an HOA of some sort so your alternative isn't "buy a different house" it's "live in an apartment forever"

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#204

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

jcranmer wrote: post #146
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #12

Scam ads and the sale of banned goods. They don't do anything about it because they aren't liable. Repeal section 230 If you place these ads you should be held accountable. Meta has a duty to know who they're taking money from.

> Repeal section 230 §230 protects Meta from liability for user-generated content. Ads are not user-generated content. So repealing it would do absolutely nothing in this case.

Advertisers are business users and the ads are generated by them.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#205

Post by BiteCode_dev »

fouronnes3 wrote: post #28
macNchz wrote: post #16

Alongside a password manager and keeping things up to date, using an ad blocker is truly a foundational security practice these days. The big advertising players simply have all of the wrong incentives to control this problem. They could massively reduce the volume of scams advertised on their networks, but it’d be worse for them on two fronts: they’d have to pay for more moderation, and they’d lose billions in reven…

I don't see how the yearly tech support I do with my parents at Christmas will not one day converge to an outright ban of the internet. I am now demoing the level of sofistication of AI powered scams, telling them that it is now entirely possible they will get a VIDEO CALL from me that's not actually me asking for God knows what in a very convincing way using my face and voice. I am scared and this close to setting u…

I already setup a secret passphrase with my family. My mother is particularly naive when it comes to what's online. Of course she is going to get abused.

A passphrase is cheap. If you never need to use it, so what?

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#207

Post by unglaublich »

samlinnfer wrote: post #57

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere travelling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Fuel_system_fires,_...

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#208

Post by carlosjobim »

swiftcoder wrote: post #99
Workaccount2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer isn't ad blocking, the answer is paying directly and in full (so no need to subsidize cost with ads) for the service. I cannot wrap my head around how generally intelligent people are completely blind to this. I guess 20 years of ad-block-is-the-norm has left people totally confused about internet monetization. I've never encoutered a problem that has such a clear answer, and that so many intelligent peopl…

> We need to start paying for ad-free services. Wake up. Where are all these ad-free services everyone keeps talking about? Social media companies don't even find it worth it to offer an ad-free plan last I checked...

YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, Apple Music, Kagi etc etc

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#209

Post by Workaccount2 »

zahlman wrote: post #199
Workaccount2 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an entire network of "get rick quick just by my pdf" intagramers, who peddle a pdf teaching you how to find a chinese product, make a website, and then drop ship that chinese product for 3x the cost to unsuspecting buyers. Probably 75% of products you see on instagram ads, you can go find on temu for their actual cost, usually at 80% discount.

> Probably 75% of products you see on instagram ads, you can go find on temu for their actual cost, usually at 80% discount. But when you do buy it on Temu, is it even a legitimate product?

It's the same product.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#210

Post by vladms »

swiftcoder wrote: post #85
strogonoff wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everybody on social media was an actual paying customer of social platforms, like we pay mobile providers (I originally wrote “water providers”, which was in fact a somewhat unfit analogy), we could demand better service and switch away to a competitor who offers it. Unfortunately, we are robbed of our ability to pay with our wallets.

I don't know very many people who have a choice of water providers. Generally you are stuck with whoever owns the pipes to your home. And since you don't have a lot of choice, the government tends to regulate the shit out of water providers - and I don't see we have any other real choice when it comes to too-big-to-fail social media providers either.

I can choose not to use a social medial platform, it is kind of hard to choose not to drink water/wash/etc.

I do not use much social media platforms, while I try to stay social, like posting one picture a month and sending a message here and there, watching a cat video sometimes, etc. I think social networks are much more similar to drugs - you can try to regulate to prevent people hurting themselves, but people will find a way if they can't refrain themselves.

Scams existed before social networks, and maybe is a bit easier using them, but I do not feel it is a fundamental shift. Along the ages people were taught/encouraged "to believe (without checking)" into a multitude of subjects (state, church, horoscope, etc.), now seems a bit hypocritical to be amazed that they do just that.

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