Photo/Illutration Takafumi Horie, left, and Yusaku Maezawa, center, attend a study session on April 10 with lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. (Kentaro Uechi)

Two well-known entrepreneurs want the government to crack down on fake social media ads that tout their "endorsements" to lure victims to investment scams. 

Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie and Yusaku Maezawa, the founder of the online fashion retailer Zozo Inc., met with lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on April 10 at LDP headquarters in Tokyo. 

At the study session, they expressed their outrage at Meta, operator of Facebook and Instagram.

The two claimed to have had their images doctored on social media ads to give the impression that they were endorsing investment schemes that they knew nothing about.

Maezawa said people who saw those ads were duped into investing their money in what was a scam.

He said that in June 2023, his lawyers sent documents to Meta asking the platform operator to delete the fake ads, but no sufficient action was taken. The lawyers are now preparing a lawsuit to be filed in U.S. courts where Meta is based.

“I want something to be done now because in the future genuine ads that I appear in might also be considered to be fakes,” Maezawa said.

Horie said he had asked Meta for more than a year to delete the fake ads, but they continue to be posted.

“There is a need for specific action, such as legal revisions or the police tackling the most egregious cases,” Horie said.

He added that he had suffered personal damage by having his own genuine ads erroneously stopped or being unable to use his credit card.

Scams using the fake ads take various forms. Those that use fake images of well-known individuals invite readers to study sessions or to invest their money in projects purportedly being endorsed by the personality.

Some videos are posted with fake voices calling on viewers to join the investment opportunity. 

Some social media have links to the Line free messaging app from where users end up being taken for their money.

According to the National Police Agency, in 2023 there were 2,271 cases of social media-based investment scams that led to total losses of 27.79 billion yen ($182 million).

In March, Maezawa asked via social media for reports about damages and 188 were submitted with total damages of 2 billion yen.

Government officials are also beginning to take notice.

Takeaki Matsumoto, the communications minister, said at an April 9 news conference, that the rights of not only the scam victims but the individuals who have been impersonated have been damaged. He added that he would call on platform operators to take appropriate measures.

But with no laws on the books in Japan to deal with such fake information, it remains to be seen what real action the government can take.

(This article was written by Kentaro Uechi and Naoko Murai.)

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