Attempted scams and fraud increase by 35.4% in January
- Rafaela Campos da Silva
- Feb 7
- 1 min read
Valor Econômico - February 7, 2025
The number of attempted scams and frauds in advertisements about public policies for financial inclusion in Brazil grew 35.4% on Meta's social networks in January of this year, after the revocation of rules for broader monitoring of financial transactions via Pix. The data comes from NetLab, a research laboratory at the School of Communications at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
Between January 10 and 21, NetLab researchers identified 1,770 advertisements, promoted and paid for by 151 advertisers, that disseminated false information about amounts to be received by the population and other topics related to the new rules for sending information on transactions via Pix to the Federal Revenue Service. Federal Revenue Normative Instruction 2219 came into effect on January 1 and was revoked on January 15. The new rules required monitoring of transactions via Pix above R$5,000 per month for individuals and R$15,000 per month for legal entities.
Between January 10 and 15, NetLab identified 752 fraudulent ads on the networks of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp. The number of fake ads rose to 1,018 between January 16 and 21, an increase of 35.4%, after the government decided not to apply the new rules for Pix.