- 41 U.S. States called on Meta Platforms to take action against hackers and scammers who were taking over Instagram and Facebook accounts to address a growing number of hijacking attacks in recent months.
- Scammers have been reportedly accessing accounts, changing credentials, interacting with private messages, and posing as legitimate users to indulge in deceptive practices with the public and people in the contacts list.
Attorneys general from 41 states, including Washington D.C., sent a joint letter to Meta Platforms this week urging the tech giant to reexamine its security policies and take action against hackers and scammers who have taken part in Facebook and Instagram account takeovers.
Attorney generals from Arizona, Alaska, Alabama, Connecticut, Colorado, the District of Columbia, California, Florida, Delaware, Hawaii, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Michigan, Nevada, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oregon, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, Washington, Wyoming, and Wisconsin have all signed the letter.
The letter came following a drastic increase in the number of account hijacks involving accessing social media accounts and changing login credentials. Several states have received reports from individuals complaining about account takeovers, with little to no help being provided by Meta. According to the New York attorney general’s office, account takeovers have grown by 1000% between 2019 and 2023.
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Such reports have made internet-related complaints the fifth-most common type of report to attorney generals in 2023. Reportedly, scammers can extract users’ personal information in addition to viewing, sending, and replying to private messages. Scammers also pose as legitimate users, putting people in the contacts list at risk of being targeted.
The joint letter to Meta has urged the company to increase staffing to respond to user complaints and invest resources to minimize the impacts of such scams. It also asked the company to develop new measures for users to follow that could help protect vulnerable accounts.
This is not the first time Meta has come under scrutiny by the U.S. government. Multiple U.S. states have blamed Meta not only for contributing to poor mental health among teenagers but also for collecting data on users aged 13 or younger, violating federal law. The attorney generals will likely meet with Meta executives to learn details about the number of accounts hacked in recent years and information about staffing that could impact the issue.
What do you think about Meta’s efforts towards data security? Let us know your thoughts on LinkedIn, X, or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!
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