The Securities and Exchange Commission has warned against investing in Meta Advertising Co. or Meta Ads Ltd., saying the enterprise sells investment products not registered with the agency.
According to the SEC, the company entices people to invest in a scheme called tasking and recharging that it conducts through platforms as WhatsApp and Telegram.
It said the unwitting is contacted and informed via WhatsApp by persons from Meta Advertising Co. about part-time jobs where the victim performs certain tasks in exchange for monetary rewards.
That person is required to perform tasks by simply liking two videos in exchange for P50 for every liked video.
Once the tasks are completed, the person is given another task to perform, this time by joining a group called Meta and to like another video in exchange for P150.
On the Telegram platform, one is assigned 23 tasks to perform in a single day with the first three tasks require liking certain videos. Interspersed in the tasks are so-called Meta investment projects where one is required to invest a certain amount of money before proceeding to the next.
The investment ranges from P5,000 to P46,800 from which the investor earns 60 percent up to 80 percent return or P3,000 up to P37,440.
The SEC said the sham investment scheme tantamounts to the offering and sale of securities in the form of investment contracts “as there is an investment or placement of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others”.
Meta, the SEC said, does not have a secondary license or authority to solicit investments or offer securities.
