Forty-one state attorneys normal penned a letter to Meta’s high lawyer on Wednesday saying complaints are skyrocketing throughout the United States about Facebook and Instagram consumer accounts being stolen, and declaring “immediate action” essential to mitigate the rolling risk.

The coalition of high legislation enforcement officers, spearheaded by New York lawyer normal Letitia James, says the “dramatic and persistent spike” in complaints regarding account takeovers quantities to a “substantial drain” on governmental sources, as many stolen accounts are additionally tied to monetary crimes—a few of which allegedly earnings Meta straight.

“We have received a number of complaints of threat actors fraudulently charging thousands of dollars to stored credit cards,” says the letter addressed to Meta’s chief authorized officer, Jennifer Newstead. “Furthermore, we have received reports of threat actors buying advertisements to run on Meta.”

“We refuse to operate as the customer service representatives of your company,” the officers add. “Proper investment in response and mitigation is mandatory.”

In addition to New York, the letter is signed by attorneys normal from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.

“Scammers use every platform available to them and constantly adapt to evade enforcement. We invest heavily in our trained enforcement and review teams and have specialized detection tools to identify compromised accounts and other fraudulent activity,” Meta says in a press release supplied by spokesperson Erin McPike. “We regularly share tips and tools people can use to protect themselves, provide a means to report potential violations, work with law enforcement and take legal action.”

Account takeovers can happen on account of phishing in addition to different extra refined and focused methods. Once an attacker positive factors entry to an account, the proprietor will be simply locked out by altering passwords and get in touch with data. Private messages and private data are left up for grabs for quite a lot of nefarious functions, from impersonation and fraud to pushing misinformation.

“It’s basically a case of identity theft and Facebook is doing nothing about it,” mentioned one consumer whose criticism was cited within the letter to Meta’s Newstead.

The state officers mentioned the accounts that have been stolen to run adverts on Facebook usually run afoul of its guidelines whereas doing so, main them to be completely suspended, punishing the victims—usually small enterprise house owners—twice over.

“Having your social media account taken over by a scammer can feel like having someone sneak into your home and change all of the locks,” New York’s James mentioned in a press release. “Social media is how millions of Americans connect with family, friends, and people throughout their communities and the world. To have Meta fail to properly protect users from scammers trying to hijack accounts and lock rightful owners out is unacceptable.”