Facebook sues Vietnamese group of four for online scams

June 30, 2021 | 22:53

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Facebook has filed a legal action against a group of individuals located in Vietnam who got users to compromise their own Facebook accounts and ran millions of dollars of unauthorised ads.

Facebook sues Vietnamese group of four for online scams

Facebook sues four Vietnamese individuals for elaborate online scam

Four individuals residing in Vietnam are accused of using a technique known as “session theft” or “cookie theft” to compromise accounts of employees of advertising and marketing agencies to then run unauthorised ads. The defendants misled the victims into compromising their own accounts by installing a mobile app from the Google Play Store deceptively called “Ad Manager for Facebook”.

This app, which has since been removed from the Play store, was created by the defendants and prompted users to share their Facebook login credentials and other information, which was then used to access their Facebook accounts and run ads. In some cases, these ads also promoted online scams.

The group ran over $36 million in unauthorised ads. In this case, Facebook refunded the victims and helped them secure their accounts.

The suit seeks to expose the full conduct of Nguyen Them Huu, Le Khang, Nguyen Quoc Bao, and Pham Huu Dung and hold them accountable for creating the app, tricking people into installing it, compromising people’s Facebook accounts, and then using those accounts to run deceptive ads.

By Facebook

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