The consumer advocacy group, CHOICE, has criticised Meta for failing to protect its customers from scams, at the annual Shonky awards.
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00:00I'm here at the headquarters of Consumer Group Choice, who has now announced this year's
00:06winners of the annual Shonky Awards, which names and shames the worst products or services
00:12for consumers. I'm here with the CEO, Ashley De Silva. Ashley, what's taking out the top
00:18spot on this year's list?
00:19Look, for the top spot, we'd have to go with Meta this year, and that's really for not
00:23doing enough to protect Aussies from scams that are starting off in their platforms.
00:29So Meta would say that they're doing more to try and push back on these kind of scams
00:33on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. What would you say to that?
00:37Yeah, we do hear from them saying that they also want their platforms to be free of scams,
00:42but there is such a huge gap between that ambition and the reality. So, you know, there's
00:46data from 2023, which showed that 76% of scams that start on social media platforms are starting
00:53on Meta's products. So there's really a bit of a question there around, are they doing
00:58enough and is what they're doing really working?
01:00Okay, next on the list.
01:02This is for NIB. And the reason we're giving NIB a shonky this year is because they're
01:07charging more for single parents than they do for couples. So there's examples in their
01:12insurance products where it costs a couple 4% more to add a child to their policy, but
01:18it's double the premium price for single parents.
01:21Okay. If we head down here, we've got this pair of socks. Can you tell me more about
01:26them?
01:27So this is a pair of socks from a company called Grounding Well, and they claim to have
01:30a range of health benefits from the practice known as grounding. We didn't see any of those
01:36in the time that we trialled it. But I think the other reason we're giving this a shonky
01:39is we really didn't get to trial it for very long because the product's so poorly made,
01:44it broke within two uses. You kind of need to charge these up and it's such a flimsy
01:48connection that it broke very, very easily.
01:50And how does it actually work? Does it plug into the wall? Is that correct?
01:53That's right. So you plug this into the wall and that's meant to be a key part of helping
01:56produce the health benefits of grounding.
01:58Okay. This next item is of particular interest for me because I have a Labrador that sheds
02:03a lot. What is it?
02:05Well, it's a stick vacuum from Asapure and I wouldn't recommend it for your lab at
02:12home. Our team who do all of our vacuum testings, they've tested so many different types of
02:17vacuums over the years, have called this the worst they've ever tested. And we do a performance
02:23test for each of these. And you know, one of those things is to look at how well they
02:27deal with something like cornflakes and we could only give it 10%.
02:3110% that seems very low.
02:32Very low.
02:33Okay. Next up, tell me about this juice.
02:35So this is a green juice by the Daily Juice Company. So it looks pretty enticing, but
02:41the big part that's missing from this is anything green at all. So, you know, products like
02:46these would be expected to have at least some green vegetable in them. But in this case,
02:51the only thing that's green in this product is food colouring.
02:54Okay. And you tested this in the lab with the ingredients that are listed on the back.
02:59What colour did it come back?
03:00It comes back looking much more like orange juice. There is not a scare of green until
03:04you add the food colouring.
03:05Okay. So they're the winners of the Shonkies. What's your advice to consumers if they've
03:09seen any of these products or are looking for more information?
03:13Look, these are really the worst of the worst from this year. And so I think if you can
03:18avoid buying any of these products, then you absolutely should. And if you're engaging
03:22on platforms like Metta, then you should be aware that they're a company that could be
03:27doing a lot more than they are to keep you safe on those platforms.
03:31So there you go. The items, the products, services that have won this year's Shonky
03:37Awards. Naming and shaming the worst products or services on the market right now. It's
03:43definitely not something you want to win.
03:48Shonkies.co.uk