Investment Scam Advert: Facebook user sues Facebook for N7m

A Facebook user in Nigeria, Imaobong Uye, has asked the Lagos High Court to compel Facebook Nigeria Operations Limited and its parent company Meta Platforms Inc to pay her N7million in damages after she lost her life savings to a scheme advertised on the social media app.

Ms Uye, in her May 12, 2022 statement of claim filed through its counsel, Bashir Rufai, alleged that Facebook hosted an advert about a purported investment scheme run by a firm, Jamalife Investment, sometime in 2020.

The plaintiff claimed she was induced by the advert to invest in the scheme with all of her life savings.

According to her, the scheme, unknown to her, was fraudulent and an investment scam, adding that she lost all her money to it.

The claimant’s case is that she would neither have invested in it nor lost her money if Meta Platforms Inc had performed due diligence and vetted the advert before agreeing to host it.

According to Uye, the defendants had a duty of care to ensure that fraudulent adverts were not posted on their Facebook platform, but they breached that duty of care, which was how she got defrauded.

Also, she averred, the fraudulent scheme would not have been successful if the defendants had complied with the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria’s Code of Practice, which requires prior vetting of adverts before they are exposed to the general public.

The claimants sought eight reliefs being: “A declaration that Meta Platforms Inc and Facebook Nigeria Operations Limited have a duty of care in the provision of social media and social networking services to the claimant but failed to fulfill the duty of care.

“An Order restraining the defendants from operating in Nigeria pending update of their Terms of Service, Advertising and Enforcement policies and all other necessary policies towards ensuring compliance with the duty of care owed to the Claimant.

“An order restraining the defendants from operating in Nigeria pending their compliance with the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria’s Code of Practice.

“N5million in general damages and N2million as cost of legal representation.”

No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit.