Hi friends, so you know I usually try not to be a Debbie Downer on my blog but I just realized that I've been getting scammed by Facebook for hundreds of dollars so I feel like I should share my experience considering there are so many other small business creatives who I've connected with and I would hate for this fraud to happen to them.
I've been using Facebook ads since the beginning of the year to help promote my custom portrait drawings and I just discovered that FB has been lying about showing my ads to people and instead just sending Russian bots to click on my links so it looks like folks are interested in my business which means Facebook can keep charging me more and more to continue showing my ads. I've explained it all very clearly in this YouTube video so I don't want to sit here and write a whole novel about their super shady practices, but this is absolutely for real. I am certain and I have proof.
And not only did I discover it in my own small business, numerous reputable news sites have reported this same type of fraud from FB which has cost advertisers (ie businesses large and small) $3-5 million a day in fake ad space.
I'm just so floored that a company who is trying to convince us that they should basically be allowed to take over the world is treating some of the only users that actually pay for its services in such a horrible way.
I'm so over Facebook and if I didn't have so many friends 6000 miles away in my hometown of Charleston, SC I would delete it entirely. UGHHHH Thanks for letting me vent friends, and make sure to pass the word along to any other small business owners you know lest the same happen to them.
Check out these reputable sources all citing the same shady Facebook behavior:
Forbes: Facebook 'Investigating' Claims That 80% of Ad Clicks Come From Bots
Fortune: Methbot Scam Is Just the Tip of the Ad Fraud Iceberg
NY Times: Russian Cyberforgers Steal Millions a Day With Fake Sites
Bloomberg: How much of Your Audience is Fake?
And this video by Veritasium explains it very well too...
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originally published July 26, 2018