In a lawsuit filed today, Facebook alleges that a Chinese company used malware to compromise user accounts to run deceptive ads on the social media platform.
The end goal of compromising Facebook accounts was distribution of deceptive ads for counterfeit goods and diet pills.
The operation
The company in question is ILikeAd Media International Company Ltd, represented by Chen Xiao Cong and Huang Tao, who Facebook says that are the authors of the malware behind the entire promo scheme. In a blog post today, Facebook says that the defendants employed two tactics to disguise the true goal of their campaign.
One method was to use images of celebrities in their ads, also known as 'celeb bait,' to trick users into clicking on them.
