Close-up Modern “Fake Advertisements” Expanding Damages What to do about “SNS-type Investment Fraud”
Scheduled to be broadcast on Wednesday, April 24th from 7:30 p.m.
Scheduled to be streamed on NHK Plus until 5/1 (Wednesday) 7:57 p.m.
The entrance is a “spoof ad”
Fake advertisements impersonating celebrities such as businessmen and economic analysts without their permission.
A woman in her 30s joined a LINE group chat after seeing an advertisement for an “investment course” on Instagram.
“I have children, so I’m thinking about the future, and if I can increase it even a little…”
After transferring 100,000 yen to the designated account, the amount converted to dollars was displayed on the app screen.
After that, if you continue trading according to Nishigaki’s instructions…
“If I had won every time, I would have felt strange, but when I lose, I lose.When I applied for a withdrawal, the money I invested and the profit was returned to my account, so I didn’t think it was a lie.” There wasn’t.”
This is because I found a post online saying that I had been a victim of Nishigaki’s fraud.
However, when I posted about it in the group chat…
One after another, I received responses such as, “This is slander between fellow workers,” and “If you have any doubts, you should just stop.”
“I thought the posts online were lies. It was just one of the many slanders. I think I was completely brainwashed.”
I was told that I would have to pay more than 10 million yen in fees.
When the woman questioned why, she was removed from the group chat and unable to contact the other person.
The woman, who lost a total of 19 million yen, was at a loss for words as she spoke about her feelings at the time.
“I thought that I would have to pay back the money I borrowed…I thought about taking my own life, and if I ended my life, I would have insurance. What a stupid thing to do.”
From an Instagram ad to a “fake Yomiuri Shimbun article”
In the case of another woman in her 60s, the trigger was an Instagram ad disguised as an article from the Yomiuri Shimbun.
If you transfer funds to an overseas investment company and manage them, AI will generate huge profits in a short period of time.
The content is complete bullshit…
“Because it was a conversation with a famous person I had seen before, and because it was from the Yomiuri Shimbun, I was convinced.”
Then, I received an international phone call from someone claiming to be a staff member of an investment company.
The other person’s Japanese was a little slow, but she explained that her mother was British and had graduated from a university in Hong Kong.
After many conversations, I was carefully taught how to use the app, and I invested 30,000 yen.
After that, I discovered that there were several other fake news sites with other celebrities talking about the same things, and realized that it was a scam.I contacted the police, but the money I paid has not been returned.
Even after cutting off contact and refusing calls, the woman says she continues to receive suspicious international calls from different numbers, and is still worried that her personal information is being misused.
“There’s no way there’s such a good story, so why didn’t you think it was strange? It’s really scary.”
Analyzing fake audio and making it more sophisticated
“Data from Morinaga’s voice” was sent to a man in his 80s who was defrauded out of tens of millions of yen by someone impersonating economic analyst Takuro Morinaga.
“Recently, a lot of people have been committing fraud under the pretext of investing, claiming to be me. So I felt the need to prove myself. For students added to my LINE, you can confirm their identity by voice like this. If you add someone with the same name and don’t receive a voice message, don’t trust them.”
When the man heard this voice, he was completely convinced that it was the person himself.
This audio was analyzed by Japan Acoustical Research Institute.
However, it reproduced the person’s speaking habits, and the quality of the voice in the frequency range that the human ear can hear was closely imitated. It is believed that software that reads out the typed text was used.
Japan Acoustical Research Institute Director So Suzuki
“For example, the way he sounds when he says things like “eh” or “that” sounds exactly like Mr. Morinaga himself.When it comes to individual sounds, he is able to skillfully imitate Mr. Morinaga.”
When we asked Mr. Morinaga’s son, Kohei, to confirm the fake voice, he said, “The voice quality feels like the person himself.The only way to determine the authenticity is if the intonation and accent are unnatural.” I was speaking.
Track! Spoofing advertisement When you actually access it…
When I tapped it, a website was displayed directing me to register for LINE.
When I “registered as a friend” from the banner at the bottom, I received a message from an account called “Taku Morinaga,” which used Morinaga’s photo as its icon.
“Nice to meet you, my name is Takuro Morinaga. I’m happy to have gotten to know you.”
From then on, communications will be handled by the assistant’s account, “Mie Ito.”
The account often uses emojis to demonstrate its dedication, saying things like, “My job is to support you,” and “If you have any questions, please contact me!”
In this group chat, an account called “Kenji Kawaguchi,” who is said to be a disciple of Mr. Morinaga, gave information to 50 participants at a set time about the market prices of the yen and dollar, and which stocks he recommended to buy as “blue-chip stocks.” He continued to write about investments every day, including information on stocks and instructions on when to buy and sell.
This time, we revealed that we were from NHK to the three registered accounts, “Taku Morinaga,” “Mie Ito,” and “Kenji Kawaguchi,” and asked them, “Why are you pretending to be Mr. Morinaga?”
Then, for some reason, the group chat, where general participants had been posting messages every few minutes, suddenly stopped. Shortly thereafter, he was unilaterally expelled from the group.
It is thought that many participants are likely to be so-called sakura.
There was no reply from “Taku Morinaga” and “Kenji Kawaguchi,” but a message from “Mie Ito” arrived two and a half hours later.
“Do you think I’m a fraud? ”
Scam group talks about “SNS is efficient”
The man revealed the advantages of using SNS advertisements compared to conventional special scams.
For special scams such as “Ore-Ore” scams, calls are made one by one based on names and other information.
However, “SNS-type investment fraud” not only allows you to reach out to many people at once by placing advertisements, but also allows you to send advertisements by narrowing down your targets, such as by age or gender.
He also argued that while remittances are in the name of investments, they are often completed online, making them more difficult to detect than when the recipient personally collects cash or cash cards.
“The bottom line is that the Internet attracts more customers.I think that’s why everyone is online.Most people are attracted to words like “You can make money by investing”.People who are interested come in, so it’s efficient. It’s completely different. If there are people who cheat, there are people who are fooled. It will never go away. After all, they are greedy.”
Japanese targeted: SNS fraud group busted in Thailand
Furthermore, it has become clear that Japanese people are being targeted by groups based overseas.
400 smartphones and other devices and 12 computers were seized from the base.
The text of the exchange was translated from Chinese using a translation app.
Evidence has also been found that the attack targeted multiple countries, including China and Russia, in addition to Japan.
Director of Special Fraud, Thailand Special Investigation Bureau, Kemachart
“Language is no longer an obstacle for criminal groups, and national borders are no longer an issue. They have multinational membership and have committed fraud in many locations. I find it easy to lure people in. “I’m here”
Platforms are responsible for growing outrage
As the damage continues to spread, there are increasing calls for the responsibility of the platforms that publish ads.
In April, businessmen Yusaku Maezawa and Takafumi Horie, accused of having their names used in advertisements without permission, spoke at a study session of the Liberal Democratic Party, calling for specific countermeasures to be taken, such as regulating platform operators. He complained that there was.
Mr. Takafumi Horie
“I’ve been saying, ‘Delete it, delete it!’ for over a year now. They’re only responding in a polite manner, and I’m being criticized all the time. The fact that there are people who are being deceived means that we need to regulate advertising. Doesn’t that mean you’ll be fooled?”
Yusaku Maezawa
“(The platform side) says things like, “We can’t eliminate everything, so please give us a break.” I don’t think they should put out even one advertisement like that.”
Maezawa has set up a task force to check spoof advertisements posted on Facebook and Instagram every day, and requests Meta to remove them one by one.
The reporting center set up by the task force in March received over 250 reports in 23 days about fraud caused by advertisements impersonating celebrities, including Maezawa.
The damage amount amounted to 2.7 billion yen.
Yusaku Maezawa
“I strongly believe that Meta is clearly failing to fulfill its social responsibility.We need them to declare that they will completely eradicate fraudulent advertising, and make it a platform where advertisers can place ads with peace of mind. I don’t think we should let even one person become a victim of fraud.”
Victims of fraud are also suing
Four men and women living in Tokyo, Hyogo, and other areas announced on the 25th of this month that they will file a class action lawsuit against Meta’s Japanese subsidiary.
“The responsibility lies with the SNS operating company that posted the advertisement without checking whether it was true.”
“It is clear that there would have been no harm if the ad had not been published.”
The lawsuit is demanding that the company pay a total of 23 million yen in damages.
Attorney Takaharu Hori of the defense team.
“Meta is aware that fraudulent advertising is rampant, but it is not taking any action.It is aware that fraudulent advertising is rampant, but it is collecting advertising revenue and posting advertisements.I think it is illegal after all. I think this may have been a violation of the duty of care, so I’m thinking of pursuing liability.”
Meta’s views directly hit the vice president.
Monica Bickert, Meta’s vice president and chief executive officer of content policy, including advertising, gave an exclusive interview to NHK.
When asked why it is not possible to eliminate fraudulent advertising.
Meta Monica Bickert Vice President
“We take this to be a serious situation. Although we are gradually making improvements, it is not easy to automatically identify fake advertisements. However, we cannot necessarily detect fraud. Technology (such as AI) can compensate for this. However, we are constantly changing the methods and words used by fraud groups. We now have to evolve our technology to keep up.”
As we continued to ask questions, Bickert reiterated that “we are working on countermeasures,” and that “we will further strengthen our measures.”
On the other hand, he expressed concern that making the examination too strict could have an impact on general advertising.
“If we start excluding certain words, emojis, etc. as dangerous, innocent advertisements may also be caught in that net. We need to be careful about that and make sure we don’t exclude good advertisements.Industry “While we cannot completely stop online fraud, we are doing our best.”
Meanwhile, Mehta also responded to our interview in writing.
What are the main measures mentioned by Meta?
▼The team that reviews content has 40,000 people and supports over 80 languages including Japanese.
▼We are continuing efforts to analyze and learn about changing fraudulent advertising methods and incorporate them into AI’s automatic detection function.
and,
▼ Regarding AI detection, we are also developing a model that specializes in celebrity impersonation.
“We also recognize that these efforts are never-ending and the results are not always perfect,” and that “in many fraudulent advertisements, in order to evade the ad screening system, the advertisements that are actually displayed are It is known that a technique called “cloaking” is used to display content that is different from the original content.”
What is cloaking to bypass screening?
According to Ryo Seto, an expert on fake information and fraudulent activities on the internet, cloaking is a technique that allows people to bypass the checks of detection systems such as AI.
In this case, it appears that the system used to screen advertisements (AI/bots) recognizes it as a normal site, while displaying a fraudulent site to human users.
Then, the system (AI/bot) that screens the ads sees the site the ad is directed to as a legitimate site, allowing it to bypass the screening process.
On the other hand, Seto pointed out that cloaking is not the reason why fraudulent advertisements cannot be eliminated.
Searchlight Ryo Seto
“Cloaking is only installed on the website that the ad leads to, not on the first social media ad that consumers see, so it is the entry point. It is important to thoroughly examine the advertisements themselves.It is important to appropriately respond to reports and information provided by users and eliminate any advertisements that cannot be covered through preliminary examination.
Regarding advertising reviews, we also asked Meta about the specific number of impersonation and fraudulent ads removed, but the company did not disclose the number, saying it “doesn’t make it public.”
Are the measures taken by platformers sufficient? What are the country’s measures? What are the regulations?
Naoto Imagai, a professor at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School who serves on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ study committee that discusses measures to counter disinformation on the internet, points out that the measures taken by platformers are “not sufficient.”
Member of the Study Group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Professor Naoto Imagai, Hitotsubashi University Graduate School
“The problem is that the content of the countermeasures is a black box. We don’t know the details, such as how many people and people who understand the Japanese cultural background are handling the measures. Another problem is that the company’s headquarters in the United States, which is far away from Japanese customers, is in charge of this, and the response time is slow.
Mr. Namagai cited examples from overseas that should be referenced for future regulations on platforms.
▼In addition, in the UK’s Online Safety Act, which was enacted in 2023, platform operators are required to suppress the posting of fraudulent advertisements and promptly delete them.
▼Furthermore, in Australia, the Competition and Consumer Commission, the government agency responsible for consumer protection, is suing Meta for failing to take measures against investment fraud advertisements that use photos of celebrities.
Professor Naoto Imagai, Hitotsubashi University Graduate School
“In Japan, a law is currently being submitted to the Diet that would oblige platform operators to promptly respond to requests for deletion of inappropriate posts, such as online slander, and to publish deletion standards. We are not focusing on advertising.In light of this issue, we recognize that we must urgently discuss how to regulate false advertising.”
What you can do to protect yourself
However, by knowing the characteristics of common techniques, you may be able to realize that something is suspicious.
You can use any number of other people’s images as line icons.
It is important not to easily trust someone you have never met in person and whose face you cannot see.
Also, if you pay attention to the message from the other person, you may notice that the Japanese expressions are unnatural.
In the future, it is expected that fakes will become more sophisticated as AI technology evolves.
We must protect ourselves with a higher level of literacy from scams that approach us with sweet words.
Criminals will not wait for platform companies or the government to take measures.
(Science and Culture Department Reporters Yu Ueda and Kinukawa Chiharu / Social Affairs Department Reporter Yohei Kuraoka / Network News Department Reporter Hiroki Okaya / Close-up Gendai Toshinako Nuura, Seiya Tanaka, Yuichiro Nakagawa / Metropolitan Area Information Netadori! Kana Tanaka and Hideyuki Fukudome / International Department Asia Directorate Yohei Suzuki)
Tags: Track dark side fake SNS advertisements people fooled investment scams Fake advertisements increase damage responsibility platform operators NHK WEB special feature
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