Facebook banned masks ads, but still took advantage of them

George Michailow is On April 1, when he browsed Facebook, he saw an ad banning product skins.

Facebook three weeks ago prohibited Masked advertising, price fraud and shortage of first aid personnel. However, when Michailow saw a video ad for "Medicare Reusable Surgical Masks", it sounded legitimate and he felt hopeless.

"They asked me to buy masks for key church members, and I saw an opportunity to buy them," their chief financial officer Michailow told Heaven32 News volunteer at Virginia Beach Church.

He bought 10 copies for $ 227.90.

An hour later, they showed him other Facebook video ads for skins. He said, "They look like better quality masks." Therefore, Michailow purchased three "AeroShield N95 skins" for $ 118.95.

None of the masks reached the masks. Contrary to what he thought, he did not buy two independent American companies. Instead, the PayPal receipt shows that the products purchased come from the same entity: ZestAds, which is a Hong Kong-registered company based in Malaysia.

Founded in 2015, ZestAds buys inexpensive electronics, clothing and household items in China, then uses exquisite Facebook ads to sell worldwide. On its website, ZestAds claims to be one of the leading e-commerce companies in Asia.

Since March, the company has mocked the Facebook ban, dangerously announcing that its masks will "completely protect" the virus, citing false experts and falsely listing the American companies behind the ads.

Facebook Powerless The application of its ban on hiding ads is a symptom of the broader failure of the business. The organization has not been able to use its powerful advertising targeting tools to lure fraudsters and e-commerce operators suspected of large-scale liars.

Heaven32 News has provided Facebook with a list of almost 100 pages related to ZestAds, as well as examples of masked advertisements broadcast by the company. After the investigation, the company said it had banned ZestAds from its platform.

Rob Leathern, director of product management at Facebook, said, "We removed Zest Ads and their network and sent them suspension and termination notices. A few months ago, we banned ads on several of their accounts and pages. To avoid violations. We are now trying to prevent our execution by creating new accounts, domains and advertising pages. We will continue to investigate and eliminate other associated entities. "

ZestAds said last year

According to customers, they promise to provide high quality products, but they rarely keep their promises [if an order arrives].

Angry customers claimed their identity on online forums and told Heaven32 News that the products they had bought never arrived or were barely advertised, sharing their non-delivery information , poor quality and excessive fees. Unauthorized recurring payments and complaints of dishonest practices dating back to at least 2017.

However, his business appears to be booming. A ZestAds employee boasted of his LinkedIn profile, claiming that his annual online sales exceeded $ 50 million. The company was founded by Tan Minghua, Li Menghan, Yue Guansheng and Sireerat Lotharakul, has approximately 100 employees at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, and others work at its office in Taipei, Taiwan. This is largely due to Facebook. ZestAds recently posted a job posting stating that the company "mainly focuses on Facebook ads".

Tan Ming Hwa, co-founder of ZestAds, declined to be interviewed, but defended the company in a statement. He wrote: "Our attention has drawn false accusations to false accusations, which are being conducted online and on social media around the company's online sales, and are designed to destroy the commercial reputation of ZestAds and of its executives. "The company added that the company has 50 people working among customers and its" cooperation with Paypal qualifies customers to receive & # 39; if the description of the order is not clear or n & # 39; arrive at your door, you will receive a full refund paragraph ""

An employee who asked to speak anonymously and anonymously about the company said that when the coronavirus pandemic swept the world in March, ZestAds began posting masks on Facebook to take advantage of this panic. They estimated that the company had produced more than 30 Facebook video ads with different masks for the United States.

The employee said: "Because it is crown time, most of the that we [we] are pushing are masked."

They were surprised that so many Americans found the ad convincing. They asked, "The question that really bothers us is how Americans can really believe in prices."

"Now stop buying masks!" A Facebook page called "Dontgoout" warned of the video ads launched on March 22.

The ad continued to show a series of false claims because "surgeon C.D.C" warned that normal masks would not stop the spread of the coronavirus. No CDC surgeon, if any, will reach such scientific consensus that masks the work. The ad touts the "N95 BreathPro Mask", which is incorrectly called "the only mask in the world that can fully protect you from bacteria and viruses".

The video indicates that the creator of the mask is "Professor of advanced materials" Miki Hiroshi, known as the largest manufacturer of surgical masks in Japan. Although Hiroyuki Mitsui is a Japanese billionaire and founder and CEO of the Rakuten e-commerce site, his name does not exist.

The happysharings.com online store promoted by ads and pages is one of 200 ZestAds and related pages identified by Heaven32 News.

Advertisements like N95 BreathPro convinced Michailow and others to buy masks. "I am also very skeptical. I tried to do due diligence," he said, noting that the advertisement he had seen promised to "protect PayPal buyers". [A PayPal spokesperson declined to comment.]

After waiting a few weeks without a mask, Michailow searched the Internet for more information on ZestAds, which also included the company on its PayPal receipt. He found a message on a Facebook group that said he was cheated and saw hundreds of messages on the complaint sites [compressionsboard.com], paypal-community.com and scampulse.com. An angry customer even made a video to warn people in the business. Like Michailow, people say they bought it from online stores with strange URLs, like lifelyessence.com, gadget-leaks.com or trinityvibe.com. But regardless of the URL, when processing the payment, the PayPal receipt will include ZestAds.

One of the clients is Randy Smith. The adoptive father of Round Rock, Texas worked with a non-profit organization to free the youth from their juvenile detention centers and place them in their homes. He bought four masks.

He told Heaven32 News: "I want to wear a mask that can be worn and reused to protect safety." "I went to Facebook, saw a repeated ad for this mask and clicked on it. I wanted to know if it was on Facebook." And I pay via PayPal, it must be legal. "

He bought 4 masks and 10 replacement filters for $ 169.89. They never came.

Smith said, "With everyone I talk to, every complaint I see is a Facebook ad that people see."

After seeing "great advertising" on Facebook, Jane bought two ZestAds skins in April. Since the embargo began, she has cared for her 99-year-old mother in Massachusetts and must wear a mask to protect herself during the race.

Jane, who requested anonymity to protect her privacy, said it was difficult for her to get approval to place Facebook ads for local political groups, but ZestAds could easily find it through hidden ads. She said, "I have to go through hell to get approval."

Misleading advertising is part of ZestAds' strategy. In the ad on weight loss patches, the company made false claims to real American police, including a person who accidentally killed a child. After a real policeman realized that his image had been used on Facebook, he wrote on Facebook: "It is not me, I neither approve nor approve the product."

Facebook deleted the ad on May 12 as part of its ZestAds deployment.

ZestAds has also overturned the page owner's transparency process recently introduced by Facebook. Several Facebook pages linked to ZestAds incorrectly list the real company as "owner of the confirmation page". For example, the "Dontgoout" page promoting N95 BreathPro lists its owner as Gamber-Johnson, a supplier of communications system accessories to Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Gamber-Johnson CEO Brian Wagner told Heaven32 News: "Not us, our name has not been verified and the page is not under our control."

Scott Frederick, vice president of supply chain solutions logistics and marketing in Erie, Pennsylvania, told Heaven32 News that his company did not know that its subsidiary's name was on the "Logistic Plus" page. 04 ". For.

He said, "It looks like someone is trying to imitate us in one way or another."

Other companies that have been falsely included as owners of the ZestAds control pages include the Washington State Closed Photo Studio, the Czech Car Sales Website, the Massachusetts Food Market and a Singaporean company that has carried out marketing activities. MLM in India a few years ago. fraud.

Hidden ads on the "Dontgoout" page stayed online for almost two months until Heaven32 News asked Facebook. Actions taken by social networks against ZestAds have eliminated them.

other companies ZestAds, which cooperated with him, also began to oppose it.

In response to a question from Heaven32 News on May 8, a Shopify spokesperson said the company would delete the ZestAds store on the grounds that the store had violated its Acceptable Use Policy. The spokesperson told Heaven32 News: "False or misleading promotion of the listed products and price fraud is a violation of Shopify AUP and is not in keeping with our mission to improve everyone's business."

A spokesperson for PayPal [PayPal] said it already knew about customer complaints about ZestAds, but declined to comment on the company.

"We are aware of the challenges many business people face during this unprecedented period. Our team is actively monitoring the situation and making unremitting efforts to protect our customers from poor or fraudulent sales activities." "PayPal is serious To resolve these issues, we encourage customers with unsatisfactory transactions to submit customer service requests or contact customer service directly on their PayPal account"

While ZestAds' Facebook operation and Shopify store seems to be at least temporarily closed, those who say the masks are ordered do not want to receive them or want a refund from the company.