OKLAHOMA CITY (March 6, 2024) — Attorney General Gentner Drummond and a bipartisan coalition of 40 other attorneys general sent a letter Tuesday to Meta Platforms Inc. (Meta) asking for a data security review following major increases in scammers taking over accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
Account takeovers take place when bad actors break into a user’s account, change the password and effectively hijack the account, blocking out the rightful owner. Scammers also can steal personal information, read private messages and pose as the user to scam contacts.
“Scammers have been taking over accounts on a variety of social media platforms for quite some time, but the massive increase we have seen on Meta-owned platforms during the past few years is alarming,” Drummond said. “Meta owes its users a comprehensive review of data security practices and an increased investment in mitigation strategies.”
As Meta users have struggled to receive help from the company following account takeovers, they have turned to their attorneys general to seek assistance and support. In Oklahoma, complaints of account takeovers on Meta-owned platforms grew 450 percent from 2022 to 2023, with 55 complaints received in 2023.
To address the account takeover crisis and provide better quality services to the millions of users who rely on Meta platforms daily, the letter from Drummond and the bipartisan coalition outlines a series of commonsense steps Meta should take. These include the need to increase staffing to respond to account takeover complaints and greater investment in account takeover mitigation tactics. The attorneys general also call on Meta to adopt new procedures for users to protect themselves from account takeovers including multi-step authentication measures. They also urge Meta to take this issue more seriously and to take stronger enforcement actions against scammers.
Users who experience an account takeover from a scammer or bad actor are encouraged to contact Meta immediately. Users can refer to information on this Facebook page for how to address an account takeover.
In issuing the letter, Drummond joined with the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Read the letter here.
