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618 points elorant | 6 comments | | HN request time: 0.533s | source | bottom
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zupreme ◴[] No.26194436[source]
It took time, and many thousands of dollars, before I realized that the vast majority of “likes” my pages received as a result of paid campaigns on FB were from accounts which were clearly not real people.

A simple look enough of their profiles revealed that, like would he expected from any fly by night CPA network, FB was using bots, or at least straw man accounts run by low-cost staff, to like and view content which FB was paid to advertise.

Worse, I found that the clickthrough metrics reported by them to off-FB destinations I advertised NEVER was anywhere close to what was reported on the destination, including when tracked by Google Analytics.

In short: like-fraud, click-fraud, and more.

I cannot be the only person to notice these things. I assume it persists because most people, self included, simply complain and move on once we notice the “game” but don’t sue.

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1. BugsJustFindMe ◴[] No.26194577[source]
> but don’t sue

Ok, so, honest question, why not? If you're correct then it seems like a class action would be a slam dunk and wouldn't cost you anything personally because class action lawyers are happy to skim millions off the top of the settlement.

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2. TLightful ◴[] No.26194763[source]
100%
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3. TheOtherHobbes ◴[] No.26195109[source]
In theory.

In practice FB's lawyers will produce a compelling bullshit excuse to explain the poor results, the fake clicks, the fake accounts, and the lack of sales.

Likely it will be the user's fault and FB can't be held responsible if the user keeps spending money etc etc.

This is really an antitrust issue, because it's a particularly nasty form of market monopolisation combined with cultivated mental and emotional manipulation to keep buyers locked in and spending.

4. alpaca128 ◴[] No.26195429[source]
If it's anything like the situation in Europe you can't effectively sue Facebook without at least a couple millions to potentially throw out the window. They pay a lot of good lawyers to make the court proceedings as long-winded and expensive as possible for the opposing party, relying on the fact that very few have the resources, time and determination to put up with this.
5. xwolfi ◴[] No.26195849[source]
Oh yeah organizing a class action against facebook, a "slam dunk" :D
6. time0ut ◴[] No.26198532[source]
Do they even have a right to sue or does FB force them into arbitration?

I honestly don't know as I have never bought ads on FB. It would not surprise me if all but the biggest enterprise customers have horrible terms of service...