Facebook Ads Falsely Claim Jaden Smith, Rowan Atkinson Died to Promote This Very Dangerous Scam
In mid-April 2024, Meta — the multibillion-dollar Facebook parent company — accepted money from advertisers promoting false claims that American rapper and actor Jaden Smith and British actor Rowan Atkinson had died. People who clicked thumbnails displaying the death hoaxes were taken to scam pages with alleged malware alerts and a phone number to share personal information.
We contacted Facebook and will update this story if we receive a response.
The ad featuring Smith read, "We are so sad to inform you that Jaden Smith is no longer with us." The ad also shared a link with the misleading headline, "TMZ Live News Updates: 'Karate Kid' actor Jaden Smith, the son of Will Smith, end [sic] his life after announcing that he is…."
Jaden Smith gained fame as a child following the release of the 2006 film, "The Pursuit of Happyness," which also featured his dad. Additionally, the younger Smith starred in the 2010 movie "The Karate Kid" alongside Jackie Chan. Meanwhile, he's been the subject of death hoaxes over the the years. Snopes has debunked several rumors falsely claiming that Jaden Smith had died.
Separately, the ad about Atkinson read, "We are so sad to inform you that Mr. Bean is no longer with us." Atkinson is known for creating and portraying the character Mr. Bean. Like with Jaden Smith, we've previously reported on false claims that Atkinson had died.
The Ads Led to Predatory Scams
The ads displaying the death hoaxes about Smith and Atkinson were trying to get users to click — a step that would take them to a malicious website displaying alleged malware alerts. It was possible that additional predatory ads using the likeness of other celebrities to try to get people's attention existed on Facebook, as of this writing. We discovered the ads featuring Smith and Atkinson in one of our own feeds.
After clicking the death hoax ads about Smith and Atkinson, we analyzed the website that was attempting to scare people into believing "Apple Security Centre," "MacOS Secure Services," "Microsoft Support," "Windows Defender Scan" or some other service had detected a virus called "Ads.fiancetrack(2).dll" on their device. The website then displayed one of several phone numbers to allegedly help. Then, that phone number connected victims with scammers pretending to be representatives of Apple, Geek Squad, McAfee, Microsoft, Norton or some other supposedly trustworthy computer-security company.
Scammers Ask Victims About Pornhub.com
We dialed one of the displayed phone numbers to document how the scam worked. On the phone call, the scammer pretended she was able to scan one of our Wi-Fi networks despite not being given any information about who we were or how it could be accessed. Then, the scammer claimed she was able to detect criminal activity on the network, asking if we had accessed Pornhub.com to view child pornography the previous day at 5 a.m. She claimed hackers must have done this, and she said she would immediately request the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a "secret" investigation into the matter.
This appeared to be part of one or more scripts repeated to people who called the phone numbers.
The Scammers' Goal: Stealing Money
In scams like these, organizers attempt to deceive users on the phone into providing access to a device or an account, and then they use that access to steal money from bank accounts or digital payment services such as Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle and others. The scammers often ask a user to visit a website that allows them remote access to the victim's device, supposedly to help resolve the fake malware threat.
If any readers have fallen for this scam, we recommend immediately contacting credible phone numbers on official websites for banks, credit card companies and payment services with access to your finances. Change your login credentials to make sure your accounts are safe and secure.
Facebook Error Says 'Not Currently Running Ads'
A fake Facebook profile named "Pam Williamson" displayed one of the above-mentioned Facebook ads. We visited that profile's "page transparency" section, which said, "This Page is not currently running ads."
This was incorrect. The ad had appeared in one of our own feeds just seconds earlier. This same issue with Facebook claiming a page "is not currently running ads" — when its ads are still active — is a problem we've noticed many times in the past. When this message is displayed on a Facebook profile, it means users — including investigative journalists — are unable to properly research Meta's advertising library.
Thousands of Paid-For Scam Ads
Facebook has hosted ads with links that lead to fake threat-detection pop-up websites — like the Jaden Smith and Atkinson ads — since at least 2023. We previously documented a similar scam on a desktop version of Facebook in January 2024. In that case, one of many right-column, paid-for Facebook ads were misleadingly designed to resemble Facebook notifications.
?? LOOK: For months, Meta has hosted these scam ads that use an image of a Facebook notification icon. The ads end up loading a scam page that displays a warning about a McAfee, Windows Defender, Microsoft or Apple security product with a phone number that goes... to scammers. pic.twitter.com/mUhHKDaUCn
— Jordan Liles (@jordanliles) January 24, 2024
In recent years, Snopes has seen first-hand the fact Meta approved and then displayed to users at least thousands of paid-for scam ads.
Sources:
"Jaden Smith." IMDb.com, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1535523/.
Ortutay, Barbara. "Meta Posts Sharp Profit, Revenue Increase in Q4 Thanks to Cost Cuts and Advertising Rebound." The Associated Press, 1 Feb. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/meta-facebook-instagram-earnings-revenue-profit-abc3e389d97fb97c661ccb6acfcf65c7.
"Registration Data Lookup Tool." ICANN.org, https://lookup.icann.org/en/lookup.
"Rowan Atkinson | Biography, Movies, TV Shows, & Facts." Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rowan-Atkinson.
