Consumer advocacy group CHOICE has called out five businesses in its annual Shonky Awards, with social media company Meta taking top billing for not doing enough to protect users from scams.
“As we approach 20 years of CHOICE Shonky Awards, it’s clear they’re needed now more than ever. This year’s winners, both big and small, prove that shonky products and business practices are still rife,” CHOICE CEO Ashley De Silva said.
READ MORE: Bali flight cancellations continue today as volcano spews ash
Australians are being besieged by scammers on a daily basis, with many fraudsters targeting their victims on social media.
WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram combined accounted for 76 percent of all reported losses to scams originating on social media in 2023, CHOICE said.
Meta was taking advertising revenue from scammers and not investing in enough tools to identify and remove scams from their apps and websites, CHOICE senior campaigns and policy adviser Alex Söderlund said.
“This is a huge tech company, with some of the best resources to take action in this area, and yet we’re still seeing so many scams originate on Meta’s platforms.
“The protections that Meta is offering its users have not kept pace with the increased threat of scams consumers now face every day.”
9news.com.au has reached out to Meta who declined to comment.
Insurance companies were also put under the Shonky Awards spotlight this year for their treatment of single parents.
Insurer NIB has also been singled out in the Shonky Awards as ‘worst of a bad bunch’ of insurers for charging single parents more to add a child to their health insurance policy than couples.
A spokesperson for NIB said: “Claims utilisation/service cost is by far the largest contributor to the cost of any policy.”
“The cost of a Gold top single parent hospital policy is higher than the cost of a policy for a couple reflecting the number of dependents covered. A single parent may have cover for one child, or many children. A couple is always two people.”
Also named as Shonky Award “winners” were the Daily Juice Co for a “green juice” containing no green vegetables, Acerpure for its Clean Lite Cordless Vacuum Cleaner and GroundingWell with its “grounding” plug in socks.
