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“It damages my reputation”: David Koch grills govt on scams using his image

Sunrise host tells Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones he is fed up with no action being taken over scams using his name and image,

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Sunrise host David Koch has today grilled Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones in a discussion about online scams, complaining that his own image is being used to fleece thousands from unsuspecting Australians.

“What are you going to do about it? Scammers have been using my photo and dodgy quotes from me to scam people for years. They appear on Facebook, they appear on LinkedIn, they appear on that to Taboola feed on big mainstream websites and I can do nothing about it.

“Here at Channel 7, we get sued by you [Ed: not correct] and the ACCC if we run a dodgy ad. Why can’t Faceboo, why can’t Instagram, why can’t LinkedIn take the same responsibility as mainstream media groups?

“I had a bloke on the weekend contact me through Facebook, abusing me ‘cos he’d lost $30,000 on a scam that used my picture and dodgy comments from me.”

“Damn good question Kochie, because the law at the moment does not allow for it. We want to change the law… we are adamant that the law needs to change. We need to drag it into the 21st century. Social media platforms need to be accountable for the material they are publishing. If they are told (they) have dodgy stuff online and or unlawful stuff online, which is enabling criminals, and they are not taking it down, then there will be fines and penalties which apply.”

Koch is one of several celebrities that are frequently used by scammers in advertising, including Eddie McGuire, Jessica Rowe, Kylie Gillies

Hearing plans for a new anti-scam centre inside the ACCC, Koch added, “That is music to my ears because not only are people losing thousands of dollars, it damages my reputation. I’ve seen a photo online saying things I never said about Bitcoin or whatever, and people lose money because they think it’s me.”

This isn’t the first time the problem has been raised publicly.

In 2019 Nine, Seven, 10 and ABC complained about fraudulent ads built around their celebrities and brands on social media sites such as Facebook.

Michael Healy, Nine Network, Director of Television, 26 April, 2019:
In recent years, there has been an explosion of fraudulent Facebook ads, built on our celebrities’ trusted brands. We have raised this issue with Facebook multiple times but they to continue to facilitate these scams, taking money and publishing fraudulent ads into newsfeeds of ordinaryAustralians. Enough is enough, it is time for them to take responsibility.

ABC spokesperson, 24 April, 2019:
The ABC is aware of the scam promoted on Facebook using links to fake ABC news stories. ABC Legal has informed Facebook of the advertisements and requested they be taken down. The ABC posted a statement on its corporate site on 10 April (https://about.abc.net.au/statements/alert-to-fakenews-articles/) warning of the scam and has also posted a link to the statement on its ABC NEWS Facebook page. Unfortunately, as soon as one fake news article or one Facebook advertisement is deleted, a new one is created. Facebook is aware of this situation.

Network Ten spokesperson, 24 April, 2019:
Network 10 is aware of various online ads promoting fake Project interviews allegedly endorsing bitcoin trading platforms. The content is completely false and misleading. These interviews never took place on The Project or anywhere else. If you encounter these ads, or any scam, please report them to the following agencies:
– Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN)
– Scamwatch (phone 1300 795 995 or visit www.scamwatch.gov.au)

We’ve alerted the platforms on which the ads have appeared and have posted a warning on The Project’s online site to alert viewers of the scam.

Seven spokesperson, 29 April, 2019:
The nature of Facebook, You Tube and Google’s ‘self-serve’ ad networks allows these damaging adverts to proliferate. Regrettably, these platforms seem very happy to carry such content. A clear case of how they put profit before any social responsibility.

Fundamentally the issue is that we bear the responsibility for identifying this content and when we do, while it gets taken down, it often reappears quickly and then we have to go through the process all over again.

It shows why regulators must hold these platforms to the same standard as established, regulated, brand safe media channels like television, broadcast video on demand (BVOD) and premium publishing environments.

Facebook Australia spokesperson, 24 April, 2019:
We do not allow adverts that are misleading or false on Facebook and we will remove content that is found to violate our Advertising Policies. From July to September 2018, we took down more than 1.2 billion pieces of spam, nearly 100% of which we found and flagged before anyone reported it. We also disabled more than 750 million fake accounts within minutes of registration as we find they’re often the source of these types of scams. This is in addition to the millions of fake account attempts we prevent daily from ever registering with Facebook. However, we will always face malicious people who are intent on misleading others, both online and offline. That’s why we’re investing heavily in technology like machine learning, computer vision and artificial intelligence to help us quickly find more of these types of scams and remove them from our platform.

9 Responses

  2. You can say if there are confirmed reports, the sites could be shut off temporarily for half-an-hour to put pressure. It’s difficult because a lot of people rely on social media.

  3. In all honesty, these ads are not hard to tell that they are not legit – not just the Kochie ones, but Dick Smith, etc. Which prompts the question why people fall for them? If it is too hard to stop the ads – as they are literally everywhere on the internet, not just Facebook, etc, then why not try to educate people to not fall for these sorts of ads – whether it be from the government, the social media providers, etc?

  4. There is no lack of action, it’s just that taking down 1.2b pieces of Spam achieves nothing when there are trillions. The only way to stop it to require people submit proper ID and pay to use services. That was considered when Spam first arose, but people reject it. And it not without the threat of ID theft and risk to people who have a genuine reason to conceal their identity.

  5. Surprise surprise I received notification from both my banks late this afternoon about new features on mobile banking apps where I can set notifications to show monies coming in and out of my accounts. Great feature is they remain a constant on top of the screen till I login and dismiss the notifications, so some progress is being made to protect bank customers at least.

  6. You go Kochi I’ve had enough of seeing your dial on scams for bitcoin, ear cleaners, male enhancing (that’s over the top) weight loss anything scammers can think of really so please rope in Twiggy Forest Eric Banner and the old guy with the wrinkly face and you guys hold the ACCC to account and while you’re at it throw in Optus and Medibank too. Just waiting for one with Elon Musk now to round it out.

  8. “Scammers have been using my photo and dodgy quotes from me to scam people for years.” – as he complains to a guy that’s been in the role for 5 months. Did David Koch ever grill the people who were in power for almost 10 years about their lack of action?

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