Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp — has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Chad Taylor Cowan for breach of Terms and other claims for providing a fake engagement service directed at Facebook.
Operating as “Customer Feedback Score Solutions,” and using the website cfs.solutions, Cowan provided fake reviews and feedback for businesses to artificially increase the Facebook Customer Feedback Score and evade Meta’s detection and enforcement against misleading ads.
Meta says it analyzes feedback on an ongoing basis to understand people’s experiences on its technologies. As a part of this work, some people receive surveys after clicking on ads to help understand whether the quality of the product they purchased met their expectations, the shipping was timely, and to learn more about their customer service experience.
This survey data, along with other information, informs a business’ Customer Feedback Score. If a business receives a significant amount of negative feedback, the company may take a number of enforcement measures, which could include ad restrictions, financial penalties or disabling accounts.
In this particular case, in exchange for payment, Cowan used a network of fraudulent and hired Facebook user accounts to provide fake customer reviews to artificially increase Customer Feedback Scores, drown out and minimize negative reviews, and avoid enforcement. Meta said these actions create poor experiences for people who see these ads, deceptively influencing and misleading our community. This is also a direct violation of Meta’s Terms, Advertising and Page Policies, as well as California law.
Through this lawsuit, Meta seeks damages and injunctive relief for Cowan’s violation of Terms and Policies, and to stop fake reviews on its technologies.
