Meta Battles an ‘Epidemic of Scams’ as Criminals Flood Instagram and Facebook

For almost two years, Edgar Guzman has been getting calls from irate customers who responded to his ads on Instagram and Facebook META -2.35%decrease; red down pointing triangle. Or at least they thought they were his ads.

Guzman’s company, called “Half-Off Wholesale,” offers home-improvement supplies and garden equipment in bulk out of a suburban Atlanta warehouse. The ads offer steep discounts that are mouthwatering to bargain hunters: $29 for a pallet of power tools, and mixed boxes of returned Amazon.com merchandise with a starting bid of just $1, for example.