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VietnameseGriffin: ‘Meta needs to ensure that its users are protected from deceitful actors’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after he and 41 other attorneys general sent a letter to the technology company Meta calling on its leadership to protect users of Facebook from fraudulent investment ads:
“Facebook has seen a rise in fraudulent ads encouraging users to invest in pump-and-dump schemes that swindle users out of thousands of dollars at a time. These ads often use images of well-known businesspeople like Warren Buffett and Elon Musk to lure people into clicking on the ad to learn more about the supposed investment opportunity.
“Meta needs to ensure that its users are protected from deceitful actors. As we state in the letter, the company should immediately review its advertising policies to ensure that Facebook users are protected from scammers.”
In these schemes, scammers provide a series of recommendations to buy certain stocks. The prices of these stocks are then rapidly pumped up when they are purchased by the users. The scammers then profit from the price inflation by quickly selling, or “dumping,” the securities at a high price, which in turn causes the prices to plummet. The new owner of the stocks typically loses a substantial amount of money when the securities’ prices fall. Pump-and-dump schemes are illegal and constitute securities fraud.
Griffin was joined on the letter by the attorneys general of Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, the Virgin Islands, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.
To read a copy of the letter, click here.
To download a PDF of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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