OKLAHOMA CITY (June 20, 2025) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond is calling on Meta Platforms Inc. to protect consumers from fraudulent pump-and-dump investment ads appearing on Facebook.
Drummond and 41 other state and territory attorneys general sent a letter to Meta earlier this month outlining concerns about ads impersonating well-known investors and claiming to offer high returns on investments. The scam has caused thousands of people to lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
Drummond is urging Meta to improve its process for reviewing advertisements before they appear on its platforms.
“Meta’s processes for detecting and blocking these scams are clearly failing,” Drummond said. “The company owes its users protection from devastating financial losses. Meta can and must do more.”
The fraudulent Facebook ads use images of well-known individuals, such as Warren Buffet, Cathie Wood and Elon Musk, to draw in users. However, the advertisers are not affiliated with those individuals. Their ads often boast about stocks with incredibly high returns for investors; some even offer free investment advice. When users click on the ads, they are prompted to join a WhatsApp group where they are subsequently encouraged to buy certain stocks. The prices of these stocks are then rapidly pumped up as they are purchased. Fraudsters quickly profit from the price inflation by selling, or dumping, the securities at a high price, which then causes the prices to plummet.
Drummond noted that pump-and-dump schemes are illegal and constitute securities fraud.
Despite Meta’s use of automated systems and occasional human review to remove fraudulent ads, scammers have consistently evaded these systems by frequently changing their ads. The coalition of attorneys general is asking Meta to implement more robust preventative measures, such as enhanced advertiser diligence and meaningful human review of investment-related advertisements before they run.
“If Meta is unable to implement a more effective process, then it should just stop running investment advertisements as a category,” the letter states.
Joining Drummond in issuing the letter are the attorneys general of Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawai'i, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Virgin Islands, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming and the District of Columbia.
