From the Podcast: How Social Media Giants “Promote” Fraud

We can all agree on this home truth about the Internet: You’re on your own when something goes sideways with your account on social media. But when a corporation like Meta doesn’t offer help to the matrix of users powering their empire, it isn’t just neglectful: It provides a lead generation funnel for scammers.

It’s no secret that social meda can be a hostile environment, but for older adults who rely on social media to maintain their personal and professional communities that situation can spell a very real danger–both psychologically and financially.

The $3.4 Billion Cost of the Golden Rule

In 2023, scams targeting individuals aged 60 and older cost victims over $3.4 billion in losses, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The average loss was nearly $34,000. These soaring losses are the direct result of a perfect storm: a lucrative target pool meeting a systemic void created by the tech giants.

Tony Bongiovanni is the father of Brianne Smith, my colleague at DeleteMe. He’s an older adult who experienced this reality firsthand, and he told me about it in Episode 220 of our podcast (yes we really have one) called “What the Hack?” 

This story begins when Tony’s Facebook account is disabled and his digital lifeline—a Facebook account with more than 4,000 followers linked to a professional band page—disappears. His reaction: Get help.

He contacted the platform’s official number. An automated message said no human support was available for account issues. “Nobody answers the phone,” Tony told me. Nobody, that is, at Meta. User desperation opens the scammer’s funnel.

When you hit that dead-end, desperation is born, and that desperation is what fuels the entire scam ecosystem.

The Systemic Funnel for Fraud

The moment Tony searched for help, he was already targeted. The “customer support” number that put him in touch with an actual human being came by way of a sponsored Google ad—a fraudulent post served up by the search engine itself because someone paid them to do it. 

This is the “system” at work: No human assisted support + sponsored search ads = a dragnet for scammers.

The scammers know that when a heavy user like Tony loses his community, his special interest page, and his memories, he will be willing to comply with nearly any request to recover it. This willingness to ignore the risks and trust is precisely what scammers exploit. 

There’s another factor with older adults, which is a corollary of trust, and that’s manners. Both these traits—inherent trust and ingrained politeness—are markers for exploitability. Scammers exploit the fact that most people are too nice to hang up on them. This isn’t biology; it’s social engineering coupled with scammer lead generation created by a general disregard for user safety on the large social platforms. 

The Anatomy of the Costly Transaction

The scammer on the line followed a standard, high-loss imposter blueprint. They asked him to verify himself by downloading a screen-sharing app and uploading photos of his driver’s license. The final step: a series of rapid financial trades. Tony lost nearly $5,000 in minutes.

The Necessary Paranoia

The responsibility for this epidemic falls squarely on the platforms that monetize user data yet refuse to provide a basic safety net. But the solution, as painful as it is, falls to the individual, because the ultimate takeaway from this story is that the golden rule does not exist online.

If you get an unexpected call, text, or pop-up, there’s one rule you follow: No matter who they claim to be, Meta, Amazon, or the FTC, if they ask you to download an app, share your ID, or send money to “protect” an account, you must hang up immediately. 

Be rude. Be paranoid. The financial security of your lifetime savings depends on your ability to reject the instinct to trust.