

Facebook ads are trying to scam me - andrewljohnson
http://www.trailbehind.com/user/blogpost/34/

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callmeed
My wife got duped by an ad on Facebook (they also advertise on MySpace, which
is worse IMO).

This particular ad links to one of several duplicate/fake blogs touting a
dietary supplement and then linking to a free-trial. If you don't cancel
before the end of the 14-day trial (by phone), you are charged $89 (for a
supplement that costs $7 at a health food store). Of course, no one answers
the phone number you must call to cancel. It took a lot of paperwork with my
bank to get the charges refunded–quite a pain.

It's a well-known scam and my wife takes much of the blame for not doing the
proper due-diligence ... _however_ , I think FB and MySpace would be wise to
screen their advertisers better.

We did submit the info to FB and were told they would "look into it"

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jwesley
Yea, those grant offers are run by affiliate marketers. It's a major scam.
Basically they offer to send you information on grants for the cost of
shipping (like $4.99 or so) and then charge your credit card for $90 a couple
weeks later.

FB banned diet related scams from their ad programs a few weeks ago, so I'd
expect them to ban these types of offers as well once the word gets out. These
types of scams are the internet's dirty little secret. Google, Yahoo, et al
have no problem letting people advertise them either.

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netcan
You know, I am always surprised there isn't more of this going on. Not just
online, everywhere. CCs are just not a great solution to remote or cashless
payments.

~~~
tdavis
They are when you use a good CC company. I've had AMEX charge-back numerous
deadbeat merchants and automated payment BS. They even got me $1,500 back from
Paypal, which is basically a black hole for your money.

~~~
netcan
Which is the other end of the problem: deadbeat customers charging back.

Ironically, that is probably one of the things keeping back ecommerce. The
cost of this purchase security is a very high cost to retailers. I've heard
some say that chargeback costs (including software, security mechanisms
customer service staff calling customers, verifying liaising with police,
etc.) amount to about 10% -20%.

The CCs, being oligopolistic monstrosities can secure customers, but that
doesn't mean the system works well.

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davi
Some crazy comments getting left there...

Are these people for real? How did they see the post? Is it getting attention
anywhere besides Hacker News?

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netcan
Yeah, seems crazy. Fake?

Couldn't actually be the scammers getting cranky, could it?

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donaq
I very much suspect that is the case. One of them even said something like
"you're getting a free service, so stfu and let facebook and I line our
pockets".

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eli
_They say Facebook will do anything to monetize its traffic - even scam its
users._

Well, they say to me that Facebook ads ain't worth squat and advertisers know
it.

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gaius
Which is weird because FB knows a lot about you and can target its ads
perfectly. I mostly get ads for stuff related to things in my
interests/activities (e.g. diving/snowboarding shops, geek stuff) and dating
services (since I am listed as single). But occasionally I see one that's
completely off the wall, there's no need for it really. I just downvote them,
if everyone did the same they'd disappear.

~~~
eli
The conventional wisdom is that big ad agencies don't want their clients' ads
get stuck next to a picture of you puking at a party.

~~~
gaius
Well, yes and no. It depends on the product I guess. They just need to be
smart and include (say) the name of the album or the caption of the photo in
their ad targeting algorithm.

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tallanvor
Facebook has done a horrible job with their ads. --Most of the ones they show
me are in Norwegian. I may live in Norway, but I don't speak Norwegian (yet),
so the ads will never be relevant to me.

~~~
beingfamous
Facebook ads have always been relevant to me. Just this weekend, I was
browsing profiles on Facebook, and the ads were all, "DO YOU NEED A
GIRLFRIEND?"

Totally targeted.

~~~
joeyo
That level of targeting is actually kind of creepy, in my opinion.

Try changing your status from in a relationship to single or vice-versa and
see what kind of adverts you get. (Never mind what your privacy settings
are...)

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gaius
The day after my birthday the text of the ads changed from '32 and still
single?' to '33 and still single?' - that's just mocking me :-(

~~~
il
heh those were probably my ads

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jacquesm
Did you contact facebook directly about this ? I'd be very interested in their
response, if any.

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andrewljohnson
I contacted a friend within Facebook, so hopefully the word will trickle up.

