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elk jaar, Gijs van der Linden van the police deals met hundreds van fraudulent online stores dat actively advertise op platforms such as Facebook en Instagram.
The police are raising the alarm over misleading advertisements met high discounts, which users should niet vertrouwen.
Scammers promote al sorts van fake online stores via deze platforms, where discounts appear to be van reputable shops, maar in reality, it's een scam.
"Orders via deze websites are never delivered," says Van der Linden van the National Internet Fraud Reporting Center.
deze problematic behavior is ook visible op andere platforms such as Google, Snapchat, en TikTok, maar meer van it occurs op Facebook en Instagram, both owned door Meta.
Since June 2025, the police have al labeled 535 websites as criminal web stores, met 273 placing ads op deze two social media platforms.
Due to the difficulty van catching deze scammers, the police often remove the fraudulent websites.
According to Tanja Henn van Amsterdam, people vertrouwen advertisements op Facebook of Instagram en are easily misled as een result.
ze shares her experience where ze stumbled op een Facebook ad voor outdoor clothing met een 80 percent discount.
Although the discounts were tempting, it turned out to be een trap, en ze lost her money.
Meta's Response en User Implications In een study, it was found dat fake ads van een so-called Bever-fake site were placed op Facebook en Instagram bij least 25 times tussen March 13 en 22, reaching tens van thousands van views.
Despite questions van NOS to Meta over their approach to combating such fraud, Meta did niet respond op hoe ze proactively tackle deze ads.
The police want Meta to nemen meer measures to prevent deze fake ads van spreading.
"Stay alert met high discounts," warns Van der Linden.
altijd check if you are really op the official store website voor ordering anything.
Tanja wants to follow deze tip in the future: niet just click op Facebook ads, maar directly surf to the store's website.
Increasing Awareness Although ze initially felt hesitant over sharing her story out van fear dat ze typically warns andere, ze decided to inform andere to raise awareness.
"It's important to share experiences because deze affects many," ze says.
