Tim Bouma

https://tim-bouma.npub.pro/

Public Key

npub1q6mcr8tlr3l4gus3sfnw6772s7zae6hqncmw5wj27ejud5wcxf7q0nx7d5

NIP-05 Address

trbouma@getsafebox.app

NIP-57 Address

trbouma@getsafebox.app

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqddupn4l3cl65wggcyehd009g0pwuatsfudh28f90vewx68vrylqpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezumrpdejqm425dd

Publishing to

nos.lol

nostr.land

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1q6mcr8tlr3l4gus3sfnw6772s7zae6hqncmw5wj27ejud5wcxf7q0nx7d5

Show more details

Last Notes

2025-06-06 01:18:27

Pay by NFC now making its way into #nostr #safebox.
Each wallet can issue its own payment card which can be presented to any other #safebox wallet. It just looks like one big network like Visa or Mastercard, but everyone has the power of a bank to issue their own cards.
https://video.nostr.build/89c7f386858bab2c94defee34d679a5524b3569967f602a595d5e03ae173561d.mp4

2025-06-05 08:12:50

Trust isn’t just a protocol problem. It’s a power problem.
If your system can be gamed, exploited, or weaponized — people won’t trust it, no matter how “decentralized” it claims to be.

2025-06-04 18:47:28

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Thanks! I’ll be gearing up for this in the coming weeks.

2025-06-04 14:02:02

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I see sats being (if not already) a neutral reserve denomination. But thinking that a banana is a good deal, costing 189 sats is too damn hard, even for me!

2025-06-04 12:48:55

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Price is a relative measure. Go to another country, give yourself three or four days and you’ll be thinking in their currency denomination. Most users never get out of their local currency environment and can’t even think in another currency.

2025-06-04 12:44:10

This applies to most HODLERs too.
#note14wf…83ly

2025-06-04 12:40:06

The more and more I work on this payment stuff, the more and more I realize that most users don’t care about bitcoin/lightning/nostr/ecash.
They only care about having funds in their own denomination.

2025-06-04 12:23:59

Here is a close-up demo of the nfc payment. Still lots of dev cruft in the UI but bear with me.
The wallet holder presses Pay with NFC, the payer taps their card (not shown). The payment amount and card data is sent for processing. The wallet returns to home screen and the payment comes in 3-4 seconds later.
Behind the scenes, the wallet generates the invoice and forwards this to the card vault, along with the payment card data. The vault decrypts the card data, and issues the payment instruction via NWC.
The NWC listens for incoming payment instructions and handles them, like paying an invoice.
Meanwhile the receiving wallet is listening for the paid invoice and once paid, stores the resulting cashu tokens, updates its balance and indicates payment.
All this and final settlement of tap to pay payment in about 3 seconds.
#nostr #safebox
https://video.nostr.build/50dcce5816b3b6ef9733b3044577ce1d19d99b495741f1433e0da6c391edc465.mp4

2025-06-04 10:10:23

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There needs to be a way to determine if the payment terminal is legit. As with the current payment card schemes, you’re trusting those payment terminals not to skim your card. You look at the fancy sticker to determine that the terminal is legit.

2025-06-04 03:52:54

Proof of work.
Payment of 21 sats using NFC card on Android with #nostr #safebox on left.
Updated balance and transaction are shown in Nostr Wallet Connect in #damus iOS client on right.
Instantaneous.
https://video.nostr.build/8cae0012419058a3739579f3f0eb38ddbc7b94f229a9379bf512104fc006f9a4.mp4

2025-06-04 03:25:26

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Let me phone Apple…

2025-06-03 18:57:50

@npub1sux…krst I got your DM!

2025-06-03 18:53:44

Payment by NFC with #nostr #safebox
I have the secure plumbing figured out. Still more to implement but here is the gist:
1. Reader acquires encrypted token from card and amount
2. Generates lightning invoice.
3. Acquited sends encrypted token and invoice to token vault endpoint
4. Vault decrypts token and issues nwc command to pay invoice
5. Wallet pays invoice
6. Poll invoice and notify user invoice is paid.
https://image.nostr.build/2ed14fab88d993a1c92c7514617333dd60437cc10ecb89fff511c4b641f5cedb.jpg

2025-06-02 17:16:15

Thinking through a NFC solution with NWC. Can easily store a secret on a NFC card that can be read by a device. But you have to trust that device to use the right amount and not keep the secret. Ok for a first iteration for feasibility, but needs to be more secure than that.

2025-06-02 15:38:21

Looking at closely to see what I don't have to implement for #nostr #safebox
https://github.com/EWC-consortium/eudi-wallet-rfcs/releases

2025-06-02 15:36:03

Interoperability is the #nostr context just means agreeing on the kinds you want to use.

2025-06-02 12:48:48

Yup. And the two really boring things I am implementing behind the scenes for #nostr #safebox that users won’t care about until they need to care about.
1. A constrained custodial option, that not even the service provider can access or see the user data, if they get tapped on the shoulder.
2. Super private payment - a safebox can detect if another Lightning address has a safebox, and instead of sending fundings via the Lightning network, it is sent by private transport (#nauth)
The last couple of weeks were dedicated to implementing NWC as per NIP-47 (it’s working!!!) and tracking down a critical bug (solved!!!), now I can get to work on the above capabilities.
Onward!
#note1zc3…9ydk

2025-06-02 12:02:03

Nostr Wallet Connect is like putting your payment card into a social media app but without the card networks, banks, or the government surveillance apparatus.

2025-06-02 10:50:43

Don’t trust verifiers.
https://kimdhamilton.com/latent_surveillance/

2025-06-02 10:38:07

People just take for granted that their emails go to their inbox.
People should also take for granted that their emergency funds and important records should be stored in their safebox.
This is what I am trying to build with #nostr #safebox
https://image.nostr.build/d3439749e5767d0c1fb884f293253239805e9b26ca77dc3fbd887759e633318c.jpg

2025-06-02 01:36:23

GN from the #npug
https://image.nostr.build/9a3be921fb8178e4b79b78a0b255b24758cbf3aded45c1fa6fb932f31d2812de.jpg

2025-06-01 19:49:17

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Cool!

2025-06-01 18:03:08

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Yeah. It didn’t really work out, though.

2025-06-01 17:59:05

Money is supposed to stop cheating.

2025-06-01 17:46:05

It’s June. Time to take the winter tires off.

2025-06-01 12:39:23

This is me behind the curtain, anticipating that I fixed a critical bug, once and for all.
https://media.giphy.com/media/SWovhw1Nua7Ay5XFCb/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47xa5elcwcu6x65p04iw8yxxujf01i5wz7xn3hgvb6&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

2025-06-01 12:06:36

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Honestly, I don't care about the dev drama. I just followed the NIP. The only FUD I care about is the normie-PQC-resistance FUD.
I just want a NIP44 PQC (if feasible) so I can say duck off to the normie FUDsters

2025-06-01 11:55:11

Here is the @nprofile…3xgh link the @nprofile…zks0 with @nprofile…gptt
A comprehensive interview about what I am building with #nostr #safebox
https://fountain.fm/episode/JyrNMsWFZN4izs6jCexe

2025-06-01 11:47:34

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For the geeks; One direct cause and another potential cause.
Exceeding maximum padding size for NIP44Encrypt and exceeding maximum event size for relay. Now detects and handles appropriately.
This bug had vexed me for months. Proof size can grow unpredictably due to the power of 2 summand. Now I check and split the proof list if the stringification gets past a certain size.

2025-05-31 15:13:11

@npub18am…p424 Hey, Derek did you DM me? Just checking…

2025-05-31 14:55:12

Nostr is where payment and authenticity come together.

2025-05-31 03:42:10

NWC for #nostr #safebox coming together quickly!
As shown in #damus
https://image.nostr.build/ef41abc78dfdfadc214e45010c4b794890ee9ba77f7ff8f1d50f51941df407a1.jpg

2025-05-30 23:28:25

Dang.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/mash-star-loretta-swit-obituary-1.7548622

2025-05-30 22:44:49

Oh wow. Maybe it’s luck or fate, but you gotta like this randomly generated lightning address.
#teampoverty21
https://image.nostr.build/6eaf149712c0d67be8fce7ae357584650b5220b211b9496418375aed9024c89c.jpg

2025-05-30 22:30:51

This girl is having none of the bad weather outside.
#npug
https://image.nostr.build/3980689b5e9cdf4d10f577a3e10ad72e14dbdd1dc6674d3428be45fb325f3677.jpg

2025-05-30 22:20:10

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I still get confused with the numbering scheme in lighting invoices. Goes as small as picoBTC

2025-05-30 21:48:24

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Is a new reply bot on the loose? I am getting replies.

2025-05-30 17:20:46

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The Great Technology Reversal. McLuhan predicted this.

2025-05-30 14:50:18

And another point, I don't want anyone, even the merchant, to know I am paying in Bitcoin.
From a reply I just made:
Yeah, great point. 'Right to pay privately' - even the merchant may not need to know that you are paying in Bitcoin.
I've been there- you ask to pay in Bitcoin - and you can see the value judgment in the eyes of the clerk, even though they are trying to hide it. And since you've outed yourself- they look at you differently, every time you go into the shop.
#nevent1q…eymf

2025-05-30 14:42:08

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All I want is a 32-byte accumulator.

2025-05-30 13:53:37

The good ole days…
#note1pdn…7reh

2025-05-30 13:33:04

The biggest thing I learned when field testing my own stuff. Merchants just see it as another form of payment. They’ll price their products in their local currency. You’ll make a decision whether to buy based on the price in the local currency.
And another thing…
The merchants don’t give a crap what app you use, they just want to see the green checkmark on their end.
If we want broad adoption, let’s keep it simple, folks.
#lightning
#note1l08…zex2

2025-05-30 13:24:30

Full page ad for Wall Street Journal inspired by @npub1l2v…ajft ‘s talk at @npub17xv…c9as
https://image.nostr.build/b3f1ff29f6ddaea4cbc125529a17c8fb62c4379d2a5137cce1c8c95effed73b0.jpg

2025-05-30 13:19:01

Honestly, I think we can encourage wide scale adoption, if we can slightly adjust the question to:
“Will that be Visa, Mastercard, or Lightning?”

2025-05-29 16:51:06

The foundation is set.
Get building.
#nevent1q…n6g4

2025-05-29 16:41:56

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On this stream 5:58
https://www.youtube.com/live/hmangS2Qul8

2025-05-29 16:36:22

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Yeah, very cool. I’m looking at backend sync with negentropy but this would do the job.
I like the name ‘event cannon’ - got the concept right away.

2025-05-28 23:42:32

View: 5 stars.
Privacy: ….
https://image.nostr.build/400ef7edb205035b0e555a9e9572b9513ca6f4ed70db1f54accd21f31e13f90a.jpg

2025-05-28 22:57:11

An app that can receive zaps and securely store your pasta recipe is a powerful thing.

2025-05-28 21:00:41

Using #nostr #safebox to securely store a pasta recipe
https://video.nostr.build/c445dd1c5f85ab1fe8a4220dd8bb2e8ba24890ae73df25f0134bad87ad106165.mp4

2025-05-28 17:03:09

It’s pretty clear to me after watching the #OFF presentations that the prime directive is to give everyone the capability to defend themselves against the apex digital predators (AI, government, oligarchs, etc.) by enabling private messaging and private payments.

2025-05-28 09:42:41

https://www.youtube.com/live/NVPhJ0aCKOw

2025-05-28 00:14:17

Enjoying the evening sunset with #npug
https://image.nostr.build/846f7208c55eca6380409d6200b3852406f9f39dab1100c6138094f1c9922369.jpg
https://image.nostr.build/c71dbced29472d6928374dbc68720d3fb157ce9ae9dc98dc9241c736d5a8c659.jpg

2025-05-27 15:56:38

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Love the nostr vibe! Totally dig the artwork!

2025-05-25 18:43:00

Simplify form; generalize function.

2025-05-25 00:06:30

'The Theory That Would Not Die.'
excellent read. https://image.nostr.build/9a910578c31379b906d00f14e02b2f4d052ca0b42c26764bbc80611f3ec86620.jpg

2025-05-24 18:02:21

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Wow!

2025-05-24 16:22:39

Everyday I use #nostr across Amethyst, Primal, Damus and Coracle on my iPhone, iPad, Samsung phone and MacBook.
It’s incredible that I can extend my digital self-agency independently and across all of these platforms, devices and apps.
Only with #nostr

2025-05-24 01:58:52

“The universe is a firehose of information.”

2025-05-23 19:41:20

A nice intro to #nostr by @nprofile…cchj
https://youtu.be/NVm_jGdwTjQ

2025-05-23 19:11:48

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But my code can send money!

2025-05-23 17:27:18

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Wow.

2025-05-23 12:15:30

Not sure if I 100% understand this yet. I’m hoping folks like @npub1vad…nuu7 will provide some guidance on how we might integrate PQC into #nostr
#note12jp…wlrr

2025-05-23 12:00:37

https://billatnapier.medium.com/how-public-key-encryption-pke-differs-from-key-encapsulation-methods-kems-7c52ea01f87b

2025-05-23 01:32:37

https://medium.com/@yewang222/i-tried-running-a-billion-requests-through-5-web-frameworks-heres-what-survived-e7e8c418fd3b

2025-05-22 23:09:12

191 sats/banana

2025-05-22 20:16:42

The international rules-based order is going to crap. This is my primary motivation to build something that works despite the international order.
#nostr #safebox
https://image.nostr.build/544f484f6e5da31544029e8d461c7c04da93520b62a7474573d3e5febf59de6f.jpg

2025-05-22 19:44:10

Cryptographic-based international order > Rules-based international order.

2025-05-22 12:49:31

BTC is the UTC of currencies.

2025-05-22 12:48:54

You expect calendaring apps to deal with local time zones.
The same should be expected of payment apps to deal with local currencies.

2025-05-22 11:58:55

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I have a segregated relay for the #nostr #safebox service I am running. Not directly accessible via internet, accessible via private vpn by internet-facing services.

2025-05-21 13:59:37

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Yup. I learned more in 5 seconds of
field-testing than in a month of hypothesizing.

2025-05-21 13:56:05

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I hope so…

2025-05-21 13:24:02

The biggest thing I learned when field testing my app for payments.
Nobody cares about the app The only thing they care about is getting the green checkmark on their own equipment.
https://media3.giphy.com/media/tf9jjMcO77YzV4YPwE/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b952iiv5letyutfhw7z57rgclfvsk5ga99i1b2kbb27g&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

2025-05-21 03:32:21

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Yeah, I gotta handle race conditions due to multiple worker threads handling payment, zaps and invoices concurrently on the same safebox.

2025-05-21 02:42:17

This is me explaining the potential race conditions of a payment system that does zaps, lightning payments and ecash, all stored encrypted on relays.
#nostr safebox
https://media3.giphy.com/media/l0IylOPCNkiqOgMyA/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b952ikr3bz5f2revro1krgaw87kgsaldr453pj859es9&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

2025-05-21 02:36:05

Zap test

2025-05-20 19:55:38

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Yeah. I had this. Just remove the relays from your lists.

2025-05-20 19:54:57

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I don't yet support NUT-61. Not sure if I will as most payments are lightning.

2025-05-20 17:22:41

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‘If you disagree with this, you are a terrorist.’ is another popular sentiment out there.

2025-05-20 17:19:37

‘People will pay for financial privacy. Banks should provide this service, but not too much, because they might be criminals.’
Or so goes the mainstream narrative…

2025-05-20 15:23:25

Martin Luther figured out how to s###post via the printing press. And it worked beyond his expectations. That’s why it became popular.
#note1766…02lx

2025-05-20 14:52:19

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The more technical detail we can hide, the better.
With my project, I am viewing Bitcoin/Lightning/Cashu is just another ‘payment rail’ for funds in fiat.

2025-05-20 11:58:42

Zap test

2025-05-19 21:31:54

Don't influence, build.

2025-05-19 21:12:15

https://www-heise-de.translate.goog/news/IP-Adressvergabestellen-unter-Beschuss-Einschuechtern-klagen-uebernehmen-10386278.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

2025-05-19 19:56:36

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Bitcoin is the base unit. sat is the fractional unit. Can’t get simpler than that.

2025-05-19 18:59:40

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Looks dangerous!

2025-05-19 17:48:38

Very cool. Testing zaps with #nostr #safebox Nostr Wallet Connect across iOS/Android and Primal/Damus/Amethyst.
All works!
https://image.nostr.build/25e7b0f37f9bc890861448a54e21a9ae525efb6b770aaeabc28234ac7ac9c3cb.jpg

2025-05-19 17:42:38

Moar zap testing.
https://blossom.primal.net/66e97ae661ad6090a9a34b17f83048597b0f494eac4ae2def4d1dce0991732f3.jpg

2025-05-19 02:04:03

Holy crap - someone just send me sats from an airplane
https://image.nostr.build/88e10f5e4096f6f2c36556a49c6fcf1eb458f70fb9b582841cb0beb618c52a69.jpg

2025-05-19 01:58:25

Game 7. 5-1 Panthers. Leafs fans are leaving early…

2025-05-19 01:47:54

#npug posing on my childhood turf
https://image.nostr.build/83b782a927719f46e4a03440021d4aae1de47b5b552af14a00ef10cd0484cbf0.jpg

2025-05-19 01:36:59

What it looks like behind the curtain developing #nostr #safebox
https://image.nostr.build/6d8f09c84a90ca64c526a51d4eef0dc04a7db223af893d2d73c95ef28b32daa0.jpg

2025-05-19 01:11:18

GN
https://image.nostr.build/ae6fcd6036ea3ea661829f291aa50437ecbd5a8029c467fda18dd55e00444df3.jpg

2025-05-18 20:58:02

‘Cents are stupid, should only be in dollars.’
‘How much is a Big Mac?’
‘Six hundred and fifty dollars.’

2025-05-18 20:08:02

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nature is healing…

2025-05-18 12:36:08

Canada’s oldest stablecoin.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/a-quick-look-at-canadian-tire-money-as-sandy-mctire-goes-digital/

2025-05-18 12:11:26

Early morning traveling companion. #npug
https://image.nostr.build/44024dbe303c7bd0f4250ba168a5ef8220468d79cf834cd1208ba41a654211e9.jpg

2025-05-18 12:03:03

Criminal Scams Flood Instagram and Facebook
BY JEFF HORWITZ AND ANGEL AU-YEUNG
The Wall Street Journal
May 17, 2025
Meta profits from ads for fake puppies, phony bargains
For almost two years, Edgar Guzman has been getting calls from irate customers who responded to his ads on Instagram and Facebook. Or at least they thought they were his ads.
Guzman’s company, called Half-Off Wholesale, offers home-improvement supplies and garden equipment in bulk out of a suburban Atlanta warehouse. The ads offer steep discounts that are mouthwatering to bargain hunters: $29 for a pallet of power tools, and mixed boxes of returned Amazon.com merchandise with a starting bid of just $1, for example.
But when people send their payments, the products never arrive. When they call Guzman to complain, he has to deliver the bad news: They’ve been swindled.
“What sucks is we have to break it to people that they’ve been scammed—we don’t even do online sales,” he said, noting that customer complaints about the rip-offs generate bad online reviews for his real business. “We keep reporting pages to Meta, but nothing ever happens.”
Guzman’s experience isn’t unusual.
Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is increasingly a cornerstone of the internet fraud economy, according to regulators, banks and internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The company accounted for nearly half of all reported scams on Zelle for JPMorgan Chase between the summers of 2023 and 2024, according to a person familiar with the service. The peer-to-peer payment platform is owned by several banking giants, including JPMorgan, the country’s biggest bank, and Wells Fargo. Other banks that offer Zelle have experienced similarly high fraud claims originating on Meta, according to people familiar with the matter.
British and Australian regulators have found similar levels of fraud originating on Meta’s platforms. An internal analysis from 2022 described in company documents likewise found that 70% of newly active advertisers on the platform are promoting scams, illicit goods or “low quality” products.
Asia crime groups
In Guzman’s case, a search of Meta’s ad library this spring showed that more than 4,400 different ads listing the address of his business have run on Meta’s platforms over the past year. Guzman’s actual business was responsible for 15 of them.
Account information for the scam pages shows they are run out of China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Philippines, but they use stolen pictures of Half-Off’s warehouse and list its address.
With more than three billion daily users on Meta’s platforms, fraud is hardly a new phenomenon for the company. But fed by the rise of cryptocurrencies, generative AI and vast overseas crime networks based out of Southeast Asia, the immensity of Meta’s scam problem is growing and has been regularly flagged by employees over the past several years.
Current and former employees say Meta is reluctant to add impediments for ad-buying clients who drove a 22% increase in its advertising business last year to over $160 billion. Even after users demonstrate a history of scamming, Meta balks at removing them.
One late 2024 document reviewed by the Journal shows that the company will allow advertisers to accrue between eight and 32 automated “strikes” for financial fraud before it bans their accounts. In instances where Meta employees personally escalate the problem, the limit can drop to between four and 16 strikes.
Adding to the problem is Marketplace, its online secondhand-market that in less than a decade since its launch has surpassed Craigslist to become the internet’s most heavily used repository of free classified ads. Its peer-to-peer model has also made Marketplace a popular hunting ground for scammers.
A Meta spokesman said the company is working to address “an epidemic of scams” that has grown in scale and complexity in recent years, driven by cross-border criminal networks.
“As this scam activity has become more persistent and sophisticated, so have our efforts,” he said. He added that Meta is testing the use of facial-recognition technology, adding warnings to users on its platforms and building partnerships with banks and tech companies “since this crime affects many industries and cuts across different parts of society.”
Meta has also argued in U.S. federal court that it bears no legal responsibility to address the issue.
“The alleged underenforcement of Meta’s monitoring policies cannot give rise to liability,” the company wrote last year in a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging negligence in removing cryptocurrency impersonation scams, adding that it “does not owe a duty to users” to address fraud on its platforms.
The spokesman said the company nonetheless makes efforts to do so.
“We of course don’t want scammy activity on our platform and nothing about this statement—a nuanced legal argument—should be read to suggest otherwise,” he said.
Fake giveaways
Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg’s recent move to scale back fact checking and policing of hate speech and other problem content has infuriated some and pleased others. But his company’s ongoing ineffectiveness at governing fraud on its platforms has drawn less scrutiny—even though it causes widespread and tangible problems for consumers and businesses.
Meta’s lax approach has helped fuel the professionalization of social-media fraud by international criminal networks in Southeast Asia, says Erin West, a recently retired Santa Clara County prosecutor who helped author a U.S. Institute for Peace report last year on such activity.
The report estimated organized scamming operations—
often called “pig butchering” groups—comprise hundreds of thousands of people, many trafficked after falling for fraudulent social-media employment ads. Kept in prisonlike compounds, the workers are forced to work under threat of “extreme forms of torture and abuse.”
West said the growth of this nightmarish industry stems directly from the inaction of Meta and, to a lesser extent, its social-media peers.
“If there’s anybody who could make a huge dent here, it’s Meta,” she said. “But there’s no hammer over their head.”
Losses to scams on Meta can range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but there’s seemingly no target too small.
Some of the frauds reflect substantial complexity and effort. In recent months, accounts featuring grandmotherly photos have been running Facebook and Instagram ads for a supposed giveaway of a McCormick & Co. spice rack and a selection of its products. Users are asked to provide only a nominal $9.99 shipping fee via a website featuring McCormick branding, a user survey and a game to win prizes.
Marah Johnson of Orange County, Calif., has regularly encountered and reported scams on Facebook for years. But she fell for this one. After she entered her credit card information on the McCormick-branded website, she was billed for a series of fraudulent purchases totaling hundreds of dollars.
“If their revenue is coming from fraud, what is their incentive to protect people?” asked Johnson, a 58-year-old artist and jewelry-maker. “It feels like Meta is helping the scammers out.”
The scam is sufficiently widespread that McCormick Brands warned its two million followers on Facebook and Instagram of it on Jan. 31, eliciting hundreds of comments from users who said they had been scammed.
“I feel so stupid,” wrote one.
“I got hit for $70 I can’t afford,” responded another.
“Why can’t Facebook police these scammers?” asked a third.
A McCormick spokesperson declined to comment.
Puppies for sale
One of the most common scams seen by banks involves the sale of pets, despite Meta’s rules banning “peer-to-peer sales or trade” of live animals outside of narrow contexts.
A recent search for “puppies” over several days yielded thousands of ads, most stating no affiliation with a known dog breeder or rescue organization as Meta’s rules require.
Other red flags abounded. Many of the results displayed common hallmarks of scams, including stolen photos of specific pets and ads from sellers supposedly “near me” who were actually operating out of Cameroon.
JPMorgan has repeatedly raised concerns with Meta about its policing of scams, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person said the volume of scams attributable to Meta has shown some improvement in recent months.
During that period both Meta and Zelle began issuing warnings to their respective users about scam risks arising from peer-to-peer payments.
Documents reviewed by the Journal show that Meta has deprioritized scam enforcement in recent years, emphasizing the avoidance of erroneous ad takedowns over safety concerns. The company has also been cutting costs and shifting resources to other issues in the reshuffling.
The company abandoned plans for advertiser verification requirements similar to what it mandates for political ads, people familiar with the matter say, on the grounds that it worried about losing revenue from marketers unwilling or unable to pass identity checks.
Meta has periodically declared “site events”—company slang for internal emergencies of varying severity—for spikes in scams. But the company has generally treated scams as what documents describe as a “low severity” user experience issue rather than a significant threat to vulnerable people or vector for organized international crime.
One 2022 document described “a lack of investment” in building automated tools to identify scams. The work’s low priority within Meta was codified in an update that year of its content moderation processes that put more resources into addressing human trafficking and content promoting suicide and selfharm, and less on anti-spam measures.
A mid-2022 analysis of the reprioritization found that it resulted in a 46% drop in likely scams reviewed within Facebook Groups.
The Meta spokesman said that the documents seen by the Journal are old and that the company has been ramping up its investments in antispam work since the second half of 2022. He said it took down more than two million accounts linked to organized fraud operations last year. Of the advertiser accounts it shut down, he said, nearly 70% were caught within a week of their creation.
Because of a safe harbor in U.S. telecommunications law known as section 230, platforms are generally shielded from liability for user-created content. Whether those protections apply to Meta’s ads is now being tested by Andrew Forrest, an Australian mining billionaire and philanthropist who became frustrated in 2019 with Meta’s failure to remove fraudulent investment advertisements using his image and AI-cloned voice.
In a motion to dismiss the case last year, Meta argued that it is under no obligation to require investment advertisers to verify their identities or demonstrate that they are licensed to sell such products.
“Because Meta has no duty to protect users from thirdparty content on its platform, Plaintiff cannot state a negligence claim,” the company said.
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