Meta Platforms files a lawsuit
Earlier known as Facebook, the social networking company files a case against phishing scam operators
By : Legal Era
Update: 2021-12-21 07:15 GMT
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Meta Platforms files a lawsuit Earlier known as Facebook, the social networking company files a case against phishing scam operators Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), has filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in California, United States, against unknown defendants. Meta claimed that the defendants were operating over 39,000 websites, impersonating the login pages of...
Meta Platforms files a lawsuit
Earlier known as Facebook, the social networking company files a case against phishing scam operators
Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), has filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in California, United States, against unknown defendants.
Meta claimed that the defendants were operating over 39,000 websites, impersonating the login pages of Meta's services - Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp to deceive the users and steal their login credentials.
The social networking platform claimed that since 2019 the impersonators used free services of the cloud company Ngrok, Inc. to repeatedly relay the Internet traffic towards their phishing websites while concealing their identities and locations of their websites. They allegedly falsely represented themselves as Meta's services and induced users to provide their account details. This damaged the company's brand and reputation as well as harmed its users.
The company stated that the defendants were liable for breach of contract since collection trafficking and use of stolen login credentials for fraudulent access of the company's services violate its terms of service and terms of use.
Meta's director of platform enforcement and litigation, Jessica Romero, wrote in a statement, that they would continue to collaborate with online hosting and service providers to identify and disrupt phishing attacks as they occurred. "We proactively block and report instances of abuse to the hosting and security community, domain name registrars, privacy/proxy services, and others."
The statement further said that Meta blocked and shared phishing URLs so that other platforms could also block them.
The tech giant sought damages under the Anti-Phishing Act and California Business & Professions Code. It also sought damages and injunctive relief under the trademark infringement Act.
Meta had earlier sued the domain name registrar Namecheap for registering domain names that deceive people by purporting to be affiliated with its services.