UK regulator issued 450 alerts for illegal crypto ads in 2023

[zasad@]

https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-illegal-crypto-ads-regulator-fca
"The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) — an independent financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom — has published a report detailing its actions against financial promotions, including its findings and actions against crypto-related advertisements.

On Feb. 14, the FCA reported that it found “significant levels of non-compliance” on crypto promotion rules that came into effect on Oct. 8, 2023. According to the regulator, i reviewed both registered and unregistered crypto firms and identified common issues.

This includes the use of generic risk summaries without any amendments for product-specific risks, such as stablecoins or asset-backed coins, and using the regulated status in a promotional manner. Furthermore, the FCA also said that firms are making claims about the safety, security and ease of use of crypto services without supporting evidence or highlighting risks."

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Let the British correct me, but I believe that their regulators are not coping with their tasks. Blocking information on websites and social networks is almost impossible if you choose the North Korea route

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[avikz]

Well that's the job of a regulator. At first, why there is a need of regulator? The definition says are regulator would be an agency to look after the security of the user and to enforce legal actions for non compliance. There is no denying to this fact that Google ads are indeed filled with scammers. Also with the advancements of the AI technology, it has become even more easier to impersonate unknown personality to promote anything. Every now and then I see the implementation of deep fake videos in Google ads. So I think what this independent regulator has done, Makes sense! At the end of the day, we all want the scammers to go out of crypto market.

[zasad@]

Well that's the job of a regulator. At first, why there is a need of regulator? The definition says are regulator would be an agency to look after the security of the user and to enforce legal actions for non compliance. There is no denying to this fact that Google ads are indeed filled with scammers. Also with the advancements of the AI technology, it has become even more easier to impersonate unknown personality to promote anything. Every now and then I see the implementation of deep fake videos in Google ads. So I think what this independent regulator has done, Makes sense! At the end of the day, we all want the scammers to go out of crypto market.

The regulator in Russia is creating a register of verified market participants, and says that investments in other companies are very risky.
Information about financial pyramids in Russia in this post
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5417695.msg63640014#msg63640014
I receive up to 10 calls a day about fraud and financial investments. All this is blocked by special software, but personally, as a citizen, I don’t see much result.
There are a lot of scams involving cloning companies and accounts, and if you are not careful, you will be deceived by scammers.

[avikz]

Well that's the job of a regulator. At first, why there is a need of regulator? The definition says are regulator would be an agency to look after the security of the user and to enforce legal actions for non compliance. There is no denying to this fact that Google ads are indeed filled with scammers. Also with the advancements of the AI technology, it has become even more easier to impersonate unknown personality to promote anything. Every now and then I see the implementation of deep fake videos in Google ads. So I think what this independent regulator has done, Makes sense! At the end of the day, we all want the scammers to go out of crypto market.

The regulator in Russia is creating a register of verified market participants, and says that investments in other companies are very risky.
Information about financial pyramids in Russia in this post
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5417695.msg63640014#msg63640014
I receive up to 10 calls a day about fraud and financial investments. All this is blocked by special software, but personally, as a citizen, I don’t see much result.
There are a lot of scams involving cloning companies and accounts, and if you are not careful, you will be deceived by scammers.

Absolutely! I fully agree with you! Scammers have become smarter and they are indeed using deepfake technology to create convincing videos using a superstar to promote their shady products. This trend is really concerning. But the problem here is that government alone cannot make much impact. Companies like Google or Facebook will have to come forward with their ideas on how to block such fake ads. Probably taken introduce some kind of background verification methodologies before approving any new advertisers into their platform. I know Facebook has certain review mechanisms, but in Google I do not see any such things.

[Yamane_Keto]

Fighting fraud promotion will be difficult and costly. It is better to put pressure on Google and advertisers to improve the quality of ads and educate users about the risks resulting from investment and how they can identify fraud and avoid 99% of referrals with simple steps.
I see a lot of ads about crypto, but the predominant feature is fraud, so this area needs more legislation.

[crwth]

Maybe a different kind of system would help alleviate those fraudsters and scam campaigns that are roaming the internet. It might have something to do with social media being the outlet and the doorway toward consumers' focus and then just being a victim of it. Education might not be the complete solution to solve this as well as there are smart scammers that take advantage of some factual stuff.

[zasad@]

Well that's the job of a regulator. At first, why there is a need of regulator? The definition says are regulator would be an agency to look after the security of the user and to enforce legal actions for non compliance. There is no denying to this fact that Google ads are indeed filled with scammers. Also with the advancements of the AI technology, it has become even more easier to impersonate unknown personality to promote anything. Every now and then I see the implementation of deep fake videos in Google ads. So I think what this independent regulator has done, Makes sense! At the end of the day, we all want the scammers to go out of crypto market.

The regulator in Russia is creating a register of verified market participants, and says that investments in other companies are very risky.
Information about financial pyramids in Russia in this post
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5417695.msg63640014#msg63640014
I receive up to 10 calls a day about fraud and financial investments. All this is blocked by special software, but personally, as a citizen, I don’t see much result.
There are a lot of scams involving cloning companies and accounts, and if you are not careful, you will be deceived by scammers.

Absolutely! I fully agree with you! Scammers have become smarter and they are indeed using deepfake technology to create convincing videos using a superstar to promote their shady products. This trend is really concerning. But the problem here is that government alone cannot make much impact. Companies like Google or Facebook will have to come forward with their ideas on how to block such fake ads. Probably taken introduce some kind of background verification methodologies before approving any new advertisers into their platform. I know Facebook has certain review mechanisms, but in Google I do not see any such things.

If we talk about Russian reality, I studied the fraud market in my country. The cost of creating a fake company is 2-5-10 thousand dollars, and the profit from fraud can be 50-100 times more. Fraudsters have already learned to deceive large companies and banks. Therefore, they will always find a way to bypass advertising restrictions on different platforms. And companies like Google or Facebook and their conscientious clients will always be at a loss.
From the most recent examples and major frauds, the scammers made a clone of the company of a well-known car dealer in Russia and collected prepayments for accumulating cars from organizations in the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars over several months and cashed out the money.

[pinggoki]

Fighting fraud promotion will be difficult and costly. It is better to put pressure on Google and advertisers to improve the quality of ads and educate users about the risks resulting from investment and how they can identify fraud and avoid 99% of referrals with simple steps.
I see a lot of ads about crypto, but the predominant feature is fraud, so this area needs more legislation.

That's still a good investment if you ask me because when they actively do something to police the fraudulent ads, it makes a good thing that the funds that came from the taxpayer's money are going somewhere. I'd like to go on a limb here and tell you that educating the users is half the battle because there's people out there that don't like to learn or resistant to new knowledge, I think that the best course of action is to cover all the possibilities and at the same time make sure that we're fighting on all sides, 100% effort on something is always better than 50% effort.

[stompix]

Blocking information on websites and social networks is almost impossible if you choose the North Korea route

They are not looking at blocking information, they are looking at regulating ads.
Since there are only a few gateways for that and most come from large companies like Alphabet and Meta you need to implement filters there, you whitelabel some companies that have nothing to do with those kinds or are to large to ever be involved in such schemes and you double filter the new ones.
You don't need to police the whole internet you just have to filter the few thousands of new ads with new domains those are approving each day.

Pretty doable, google can simply blacklist any site containing certain keywords if the ad isn't coming from a company registered with the FCA in this case, it's just that they didn't care till this point.

[Yamane_Keto]

Pretty doable, google can simply blacklist any site containing certain keywords if the ad isn't coming from a company registered with the FCA in this case, it's just that they didn't care till this point.

Cryptocurrency ads on Google and Meta do not provide useful content, and if they are banned, it would be better, but they help them link Bitcoin and scam, and these companies also make profits from these ads. I do not remember I saw a crypto ad for something useful. If it is not a scam, it will be a trading site, there are no ads for open source software or anything useful.

[zasad@]

Blocking information on websites and social networks is almost impossible if you choose the North Korea route

They are not looking at blocking information, they are looking at regulating ads.
Since there are only a few gateways for that and most come from large companies like Alphabet and Meta you need to implement filters there, you whitelabel some companies that have nothing to do with those kinds or are to large to ever be involved in such schemes and you double filter the new ones.
You don't need to police the whole internet you just have to filter the few thousands of new ads with new domains those are approving each day.

Pretty doable, google can simply blacklist any site containing certain keywords if the ad isn't coming from a company registered with the FCA in this case, it's just that they didn't care till this point.

I agree with your thoughts, but many companies filter ads using software and not all ads undergo human moderation. Therefore, very often cunning advertising managers find ways to circumvent these restrictions.
Fraudsters are very mobile, and a large corporation is very slow and cannot quickly respond to vulnerabilities.

[stompix]

I agree with your thoughts, but many companies filter ads using software and not all ads undergo human moderation. Therefore, very often cunning advertising managers find ways to circumvent these restrictions.

Software can be adapted, it just takes filters, look at how ublock is blocking every garbage add possible, and I've been on some shady websites where the counter of ads blocked went over 50+ and still not se even one frame from them.

Fraudsters are very mobile, and a large corporation is very slow and cannot quickly respond to vulnerabilities.

Yeah right, no!!!
Common, google has taken everyone by surprise a thousands times already with the stuff they've been building for decades, you really think they won't be able to get rid of them if they really wanted? They got rid of numerous kinds of ads in the past, they were able to destroy seo cheating scores with one tiny one line update, and you think they won't be able to clear every crypto related thing out there?
There is a big difference between not being able to do it and not caring that much to do it!

I do not remember I saw a crypto ad for something useful.

I don't remember seeing an add at all, not to mention a useful one, even if not crypto related!

[zasad@]

There is a big difference between not being able to do it and not caring that much to do it!

This was written by the famous Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in 1824
"Ah, it’s not difficult to deceive me!..
I'm happy to be deceived myself!"(C)
https://ilibrary.ru/text/599/p.1/index.html

These companies themselves leave opportunities for violators because the companies want to make money. That's why I say that these restrictions do not work in the advertising business.

[stompix]

This was written by the famous Russian

It was written 2 millennia's before:

velle est posse

which means to be willing to do something means being able to do it.

[zasad@]

Large corporations are interested in making a profit and are not interested in the governments of one or more countries. Therefore, the path of prohibition in IT technologies never works. In Russia, on March 1, 2024, all VPNs were banned , but I use VPN.
I have always called such prohibitions formal.