Facebook sues people who are responsible for phishing websites and stealing log-in details. Meta (formerly Facebook (Social Media)) is taking legal action against bad actors who are responsible for many phishing scams. The scammers created over 39,000 fake websites with the intent of impersonating Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Phishing scams were used to trick many users into giving up their log-in information.
How Phishing Works?
Based on the company’s account, scammers used relay services, such as Ngrok, to send people to these fake login pages. These push links tried to bring visitors to these login pages. These pages closely resembled Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or WhatsApp in order to trick users. Persons who tried to log in got hacked and phishers collect their usernames and passwords.
Phishing Attacks on Meta’s Websites
The scammers have been around since 2019 but they only started the attacks by March (Claim by Meta). The company then contacted Ngrok to take down these fake websites. The scammers pretended to be Meta by using their trademarked logos and names on fake login pages to build trust.
“By creating and disseminating URLs for the Phishing Websites, Defendants falsely represented themselves to be Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp, without Plaintiffs’ authorization. Plaintiffs were adversely affected by Defendants’ phishing scheme and suffered, without limitation, damage to their brands and reputations, harm to their users.”
Meta’s Complaint
Facebook Sues People Responsible
Meta claims that this is one of the ways they are trying to protect the safety & privacy of people. The company wants to send a clear message that it doesn’t condone any form of backlash on its platform. They want to make people more accountable for the things they do online or abuse the technology. Meta blocks and shares phishing URLs in the media so other content providers can also block them.
Conclusion
Meta / Facebook is already paying billions to protect people’s privacy and provide them better user experience by only using their private information. Meta cannot bear that a 3rd party can retrieve or hack any private information of people in Meta’s name. People are being sued for creating phishing websites. Phishing websites are used by hackers to steal information from you. The article shows how Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are now taking action against the people that are responsible for creating phishing websites.
