Damage caused by misleading advertising on Meta: Fraudulent ads promote misinformation about Pix to harm Brazilian citizens
- erickdau
- Feb 6
- 2 min read
This study presents evidence on how malicious advertisers have been improperly exploiting public policies aimed at financial inclusion to scam Brazilian citizens by boosting ads on Meta’s platforms. Between January 10 and 21, 2025, we identified and analyzed 1,770 ads with fraudulent content that promoted false information about amounts to be received by the population and other topics related to the new rules for sending transaction information via Pix to the Federal Revenue Service. The fraudulent advertisements offered real and fictitious government programs, pretended to be pages of public and private institutions, and manipulated the image of political leaders with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Among the findings, we highlight that: 1) the number of scams and frauds in Meta ads increased by 35% after the government revoked the new rules; and 2) the use of deepfakes of federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL/MG), a protagonist of the campaign to repeal the rule, increased by 234% after the government’s retreat. The reach of the fraud was maximized by the use of Meta’s marketing tools, which allow the purchase of targeted ads according to demographic, geographic and interest criteria of users, but the company does not offer transparency on this data. In addition, the lack of control and security against misleading advertising on Meta’s platforms makes them environments ripe for digital crime, especially in countries in the Global South, where local laws are often disregarded by social networks.
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How To Cite: SANTINI, R. Marie; SALLES, Débora; MATTOS, Bruno; MOREIRA, Alékis; MELLO, Danielle; HADDAD, João Gabriel; DIAS, Bernardo; GOMES, Matheus; DAU, Erick; BORGES, Amanda; LOUREIRO, Felipe. DAMAGES CAUSED BY MISLEADING ADVERTISING IN META: Fraudulent advertisements promote misinformation about Pix to harm Brazilian citizens. Rio de Janeiro: NetLab – Laboratory of Internet and Social Network Studies, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Published on February 5, 2025.
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This report is an independent production of NetLab UFRJ. All decisions regarding this work were made exclusively by the researchers of the laboratory. The funders of NetLab UFRJ have no influence on the laboratory's research agenda and did not participate in any stage of the production of this report.
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