Latest news with #Agranovich
Khaleej Times
05-03-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Meta targets fake celebrity ads in Europe, South Korea
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is launching a facial recognition tool to detect scam adverts featuring images of celebrities in Britain, the European Union and South Korea. Meta has already tested the tool in other countries, where it plans to expand the feature to cover more celebrities. David Agranovich, Meta's cyber threats director, said public figures in Britain and the EU will start receiving notifications in coming weeks allowing them to opt-in to receive the "celeb-bait" protection tool with facial recognition technology. "We do believe that this tool will help us identify misused images of public figures," even if the ad uses generative artificial intelligence, Agranovich told reporters. Fake adverts featuring doctored images of celebrities are widespread on social media, often luring users into sharing personal information or sending money. If a public figures enables Meta's new feature, the tool will scan their profile picture and compare it with faces appearing in suspected fake ads, which will be automatically blocked if misuse is confirmed. Meta also announced it will integrate facial recognition into its account recovery tools for all users. Those opting in will be able to verify their identity by recording a short video if their account is locked. The company said facial data will be used only for this verification process and deleted immediately afterward. It added that the technology complies with European data protection regulations. Meta had previously halted facial recognition on its platforms in 2021 over privacy concerns but announced in October 2024 that it would reinstate the technology to combat deceptive ads.
Japan Times
14-02-2025
- Japan Times
Got a digital crush this Valentine's? Beware of scams, says Meta.
San Francisco – On Feb. 12, Meta warned internet users to be wary of online acquaintances "This is a new tool in the toolkit of scammers," Meta Platforms global threat disruption policy director David Agranovich told journalists during a briefing. "These scammers evolve consistently; we have to evolve to keep things right." Detection systems in Meta's family of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp rely heavily on behavior patterns and technical signals rather than on imagery, meaning it spies scammer activity despite the AI trickery, according to Agranovich.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Scammers using AI to dupe the lonely looking for love
Meta on Wednesday warned internet users to be wary of online acquaintances promising romance but seeking cash as scammers use deep fakes to prey on those looking for love. "This is a new tool in the toolkit of scammers," Meta global threat disruption policy director David Agranovich told journalists during a briefing. "These scammers evolve consistently; we have to evolve to keep things right." Detection systems in Meta's family of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp rely heavily on behavior patterns and technical signals rather than on imagery, meaning it spies scammer activity despite the AI trickery, according to Agranovich. "It makes our detection and enforcement somewhat more resilient to generative AI," Agranovich said. He gave the example of a recently disrupted scheme that apparently originated in Cambodia and targeted people in Chinese and Japanese languages. Researchers at OpenAI determined that the "scam compound" seemed to be using the San Francisco artificial intelligence company's tools to generate and translate content, according to Meta. Generative AI technology has been around for more than a year, but in recent months its use by scammers has grown strong, "ethical hacker" and SocialProof Security chief executive Rachel Tobac said during the briefing. GenAI tools available for free from major companies allow scammers to change their faces and voices on video calls as they pretend to be someone they are not. "They can also use these deep fake bots that allow you to build a persona or place phone calls using a voice clone and a human actually doesn't even need to be involved," Tobac said. "They call them agents, but they're not being used for customer support work. They're being used for scams in an automated fashion." Tobac urged people to be "politely paranoid" when an online acquaintance encourages a romantic connection, particularly when it leads to a request for money to deal with a supposed emergency or business opportunity. - Winter blues - The isolation and glum spirits that can come with winter weather along with the Valentine's Day holiday is seen as a time of opportunity for scammers. "We definitely see an influx of scammers preying on that loneliness in the heart of winter," Tobac said. The scammer's main goal is money, with the tactic of building trust quickly and then contriving a reason for needing cash or personal data that could be used to access financial accounts, according to Tobac. "Being politely paranoid goes a long way, and verifying people are who they say they are," Tobac said. Scammers operate across the gamut of social apps, with Meta seeing only a portion of the activity, according to Agranovich. Last year, Meta took down more than 408,000 accounts from West African countries being used by scammers to pose as military personnel or businessmen to romance people in Australia, Britain, Europe, the United States and elsewhere, according to the tech titan. Along with taking down nefarious networks, Meta is testing facial recognition technology to check potential online imposters detected by its systems or reported by users. gc/arp/dw
