Facebook fake ads tool

I doubt it will make much difference to the "Top ISA Rates" end of the market. Facebook already takes down the blatant scams through the report button it's always had. And the non-blatant scams will be waved through by the specialist team.

I think Martin Lewis copped out by accepting this settlement. £3 million for this task force. By contrast, Surge spent in the region of £6 million on London Capital and Finance Facebook ads. (£26 million spent on advertising in total, £20 million spent on Google, and most of the rest is likely to have gone to Facebook as there weren't many other significant channels.)

These would probably have been waved through by Facebook even after being reviewed by the specialist team. At time of writing, Surge has not broken any laws with its misleading list of unregulated bonds and regulated investments and deposit accounts, or by advertising it on Facebook. (Their CEO was arrested and then released without charge.)

If this specialist team had existed at the time and had reported back to Facebook's advertising department to say "It looks a bit dodgy and the investments it offers are high risk, but they're not breaking any laws and LCF is a regulated company" then are the ad managers going to drop the ads or keep them up and keep the £6 million? Not to mention the legal risk of accusing an active company with deep pockets of being a scam?

Martin Lewis would have done more good for the public if he'd not settled and forced Facebook to explain in court why they allow these ads to appear.