Facebook Profits From Counterfeiters and Con Artists

I’ve decided to create this blog to feature some stories in the world of marketing related to Your Next Ensemble. Hopefully it will be of interest to some people out there.

Today I want to comment on how Facebook seems to make money from dubious websites selling counterfeit products or otherwise scamming their customers. Since I live in Japan, I am normally targeted by ads in Japanese, of which you’ll find some examples below:

Facebook Ads

This screen capture was taken from my Facebook Adboard, which is a useful site on Facebook showing your most recently viewed ads. The left advertisement is for saleugg.jp, which is not an authorized retailer of UGG Australia products according to UGG Australia. The domain saleugg.jp is whois protected, but apparently registered under Taro Yamada on September 4, 2012:

uggsale-jp

The right advertisement is supposedly for legalsglasses.com, which simply redirects to buyglasses.jp. The latter domain is registered under “Lin WeiTian” on January 20, 2013. The website looks like a complete scam, and has been reported to Oakley:

buyglasses-jp

We question why Facebook is accepting ads from companies that are involved in scams. Perhaps it’s time they review their internal policies.