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Reward - a bounty for scammers

June 20, 2025

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The Philippine Star

Now more than ever before have I seen so many fake or scam ads on META/Facebook that were AI-generated faces and voices of the country's top businessmen, as well as the President, being used to fool people to invest on a limited offer.

- CITO BELTRAN

Reward - a bounty for scammers

Among those who have been victimized or used are Ramon Ang, Lance Gokongwei, Enrique Razon and President Bongbong Marcos. Even media personalities like Mel Tiangco and Tony Velasquez have seen their AI counterfeits misrepresent them.

I have actually reported these fakes to META/Facebook but the only response I got was that the ads complied with community standards. What are the chances that there is a program or system that intercepts those reports, so the legitimate FB/META regulators don't even receive them?

All these tend to prove or substantiate the claim that the online AI scammers are so advanced that it is next to impossible for regulators to track, charge or shut them down, especially if they are state-sponsored scammers or BOTs.

What complicates the situation is how deficient the platform management or executives are in simplifying the reporting process, how it lacks transparency and relies mainly on apps and bots to "process" reports and complaints.

Or is it only in the Philippines where we don't have strict laws like in the EU and US where social media platforms have been fined millions of dollars for violations on privacy and sharing users' data to vendors and advertisers?

Honestly, I am from the analog age so it's hard for me to figure out what can or cannot be done. But do we simply say "Clicker Beware" or work only in a "Cash Only" environment with no digital transactions? It's too late for that.

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