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Facebook has stalled again. But this time it was not FB itself, but a so-called “advertising group”. A large number of scam advertisements were placed on FB. The method was extremely secretive and the loopholes were extremely fierce. It was only recently revealed that the tip of the iceberg was revealed.

How is it done? This is a dazzling operation – they have turned a large group of ordinary users into their “zombies.”

The victim, not an addiction patient, is the most vulnerable person in front of the Internet.

In the past two years, many people’s credit card bills have suddenly appeared to be a small number, and they are deducted every month. Take a closer look, I don’t know when, “subscribe” some inexplicable goods.

At this time, on Facebook, thousands of ordinary people’s accounts are being manipulated, and crazyly send a scam with a star face – Tom Hanks, Sandra Brook, Snoop Dog and so on. These ads, once and for all, appear on your home timeline. Is it a hacker? It’s not that simple. The main ambassador behind this is an advertising company called Ads Inc. The CEO is a post-90s careerist. These routines, carefully analyzed, are actually not complicated.

▲Celebrity Advertising | Ladder.io

First of all, the patterns of these fake advertisements are the same: Subscription Scam. A star news of your concern suddenly appears on your timeline, with a small word next to the sponsor, telling you that it is an advertisement.

▲Facebook’s ads are like this | BuzzFeed

But you have long been attracted to the face of the star (usually the title is also very sensational, such as the star rumor), after you click in it, you find that in the so-called “news”, the star is behind the product. The book (such as what beauty oil, diet meal replacement, etc.). Finally, I will tell you that if you register for a website, you will be given a free trial, and you only need to pay the shipping fee.

▲Free trial after false news page | BuzzFeed

FreeFees! So you rushed to register, filled out the credit card and paid the “freight”, and the product was delivered. But after a month, you find that there is a strange number on the credit card, ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred – you have inadvertently registered the product’s “subscription service”, and it is extremely troublesome to cancel.

This scam is especially effective for middle-aged and older people (the stars in the advertisements are mostly rural singers and actors who are middle-aged and old-loving). Middle-aged and elderly people are not familiar with Internet information. They don’t look at all kinds of small characters and T&C. They don’t know how many pits can be advertised.

These ads are also very tactical – aiming at your geography, age and other information, accurately hitting those “stupid people” and harvesting a wave of leeks. The founder is a loyal supporter of the Republican Party in the United States, and Trump’s strategy of accurately combating the poor red neck in 2016 is straightforward.

But, in fact, FB is very strict on advertising. If it is found to be a fake advertisement or publicity, it will be sealed soon after verification, and the scammer will not be able to play the advertisement. How to do?

This is the astounding operation of this Ads Inc: use the “Rent Account” to fight guerrilla warfare.

▲图 | Banksy

Everyone can advertise on FB, as long as you create an advertisement or public page (similar to building a WeChat public account), then you can post, spend money to advertise, let others click in, Then put the advertising chain to other places, and then you can sell your products yourself.

What should I do if the page where I advertise is blocked?

Ads Inc works with a range of platforms that recruit people to let them “rent” their FB personal accounts. You don’t need your username and password. Just give these third-party platforms an authorization, install a browser plug-in, and do nothing with yourself. Let others use your account to set up a homepage and arrange advertising content. This homepage doesn’t have a relationship with your half-money, and you don’t need to know it. It’s the equivalent of taking your own micro-signal to someone else and opening a public number that you don’t know.

▲One such website screenshot | fbdollars

And who are they targeting? It is also an elderly person, or a housewife/female, and some unemployed people. These people are very leisurely and very short of money. They don’t know how to play the Internet. I can “rent out” my account. I have dozens of knives a month, and a few hundred a year. Why not? Some also send a laptop when they start, which is simply awkward.

These people then pass on word of mouth, develop their own “downline” and receive some commissions, like pyramid schemes. The housewife’s housewife friend also earned money, or got a free mobile phone, laptop, and a wave of friends. At the next level, there are thousands of accounts in the hands of Ads Inc.

▲Many users really got a laptop | BuzzFeed

And, most importantly, Ads Inc and those who actually use these accounts to make fake ads will not be found at all. After FB finds a fake advertisement, it can only block the public homepage related to this account. Vendors who make fake advertisements can pay Ads Inc to continue to change their accounts and change them for hundreds of knives.

All of this is a background operation. The permissions of the backdoor program are so scary that you can get almost all your personal information. The front desk is completely unaware that their account has been monitored. They simply have no ability to know what is going on in the middle.

This thing is hidden deepIt’s hidden, so high-tech, organized, and it’s been a long time since the US Federal Investigation Commission checked it out. BuzzFeed News recently wrote a long article about the company and the industry chain behind it, including the founder of the 90s, Asher Burke. (Give him a rating, “he revolutionized scamming”… There are a lot of wonderful things, click on the original link to see this in-depth report)

▲BuzzFeed’s report “Trap King”, double-off | screenshots

All scams have subtleties that strike the greed of humanity. It is not uncommon to give you a little sweetness and to use your wool here. The prototype of Internet fraud is the so-called “Prince of Nigeria” (it is said that there is a huge sum of money on hand that needs to be transferred to your account, to give you a part, but you need to put a little “handling fee”), at first glance, stupid, but also The amount wins.

However, the trend of this story is even more worrying. When a liar knows more about technology than all of us, things will develop in an unmanageable place, and the lives of ordinary people will become more and more difficult.

▲图 | Bansky

Different people can look at this issue from different angles: Internet security needs to be improved; large platforms must be strengthened; people must improve their preparedness. Even those who don’t understand these things will feel the emotions on their chests – small ones can’t be occupied.

However, technology and its manipulators are entrenched in a huge, horrific image that accurately hits the most vulnerable groups and frants indiscriminately.

This is “exploitative technology.” The space it plunders is a potential inequality; and what it creates is greater inequality.

▲图 | Bansky

A mother who is in her 50s who doesn’t understand the Internet and wants to mix with her son. When I open the WeChat circle of friends and the social network app, there is a pit of people who are eager to sing and squat. Money; Aunt Aunt was convinced by the next door aunt, renting out his own account, sharing his personal information to change the gift, and indirectly and very hard to pit others.

Really is the perfect closed loop.

Middle-aged people are one of the most vulnerable groups in front of technology. Their learning ability and willingness to learn are relatively low, and there is a lack of judgment on the fast-growing emerging things of the Internet. When the carrier and appearance of information change, it is difficult for them to distinguish between good and bad by our set of standards. According to a study in the January issue of the Science Journal, older people over the age of 65 forwarded fake news seven times as many as young people. This is not uncommon in foreign countries or in China. I believe that you are also accustomed to the sensational rumors of the elders in the family.

▲图 | Bansky

We use an increasingly advanced design to create an increasingly “humanized” interface. Many things are now “user friendly”, and WeChat can also be played by your grandfather; however, this seemingly reduced barrier is an invisible abyss for them. The Internet is not a simple virtual space, but a complex machine that is in danger everywhere. It requires a lot of experience and knowledge to understand. The distance between them is the zone where plunder takes place. The nature of the Internet’s openness and its high degree of commercialization make it easy for the most savvy leeks to reach the most technologically advanced reapers.

In fact, you and I are the same. The computer is just a screen with a browser inside, we are online, and we have almost entrusted ourselves to this “user friendly” place. However, we share our most intimate things—dialogue, diary, and property—to a large, cold, never-forgotten modern enterprise, and everything behind it, and our only hope is that it doesn’t care. Our existence is only there.

▲图 | Bansky

After a while, The Guardian published a series of in-depth reports on the title of “Digital Docs: How Algorithms Punish the Poor” (Digital dystopia: how algorithms punish the poor ). From social security, to work and labor, to welfare decisions, these “algorithms” that are swayed by technicians carry natural prejudice and make the poor, ethnic minorities, and women fall into injustice.

And more dangerous than this, these people face huge algorithmic machinesAnd the capital and power behind it is unarmed. How do you expect a person who doesn’t even understand the algorithm to fight against the algorithm?

Then what is next? Vulnerable groups are further isolated by “more advanced” networks and technologies. After the aunt was pitted, she vowed to stay away from the social network and never use a mobile phone again – then they could not enjoy the convenience brought about by technological development, and the inequality deepened. This is the social consequences of technology.

▲A series of reports from the Guardian | Screenshots of web pages

The academic circles and even some of the industry are rethinking. How is the power of capital so precisely through technical barriers and slashing the meat of ordinary people? When technology is more fragmented than society, how will society see technology again?

What kind of technology do we need? Of course, we are not ignoring technology. What we need to recognize is the reality that no technology is independent of society. Technology does not develop in a vacuum, but from our social needs, manipulated by power structures, and acts on specific groups. We need to find answers from the “surroundings” of technology.

Sent a few words from the founder of Georgia Tech History, the American science and technology history field, Melvin Kranzberg (also known as “Kranzberg’s Laws”), lying on the wall of our classroom.

▲Kranzberg’s LaWs | author

“1, technology is neither good nor bad, nor is it neutral.”

“4. Although technology is at the forefront of many public affairs, non-technical factors predominate in technology decisions.”

“6, technology is a human activity. The same is true of technology history.”

The roaring machine brought Marx political economy; dazzling TV and radio bands Come to modern communication; and when Internet technology transcends the understanding of other paradigms, I don’t know who has the courage to answer those pressing questions.

As a scientific, technical, and social researcher, you will feel a Calling from time to time. I know that my own people are a little bit light, and I may not be able to study it at the end, but I think this profession may be socially needed. Let’s talk about it.

Reference Sources

[1] Craig Silverman, “How A Massive Facebook Scam Siphoned Millions Of Dollars From Unsuspecting Boomers”, BuzzFeed News

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-subscription-trap-free-trial-scam-ads-inc

[2] Craig Silverman, “People Are Renting Out Their Facebook Accounts In Exchange For Cash And Free Laptops”, BuzzFeed News, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-account-rental-ad-laundering-scam

[3] Guess, A., Nagler, J., & Tucker, J. (2019). Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook. Science advances, 5(1), eaau4586.

[4] Guardian, Digital dystopia: how algorithms punish the poor, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/14/automating-poverty -algorithms-punish-poor