Financial scam through ads in Meta Ads

The report involves a financial scam driven by 88 advertisements run on Meta's platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network). We mapped the profiles responsible for this campaign and the ecosystem of fraudulent websites linked to the ads. The ads have been running since January 2023, remain active and reached approximately 1.5 million impressions, causing harm to thousands of users in Brazil.

In an extra survey also present in the study, carried out between April 17th and 20th, we found another 165 advertisements with the same content that were not categorized as sensitive and archived by the Meta library, totaling 263 advertisements with the scam.

Ads that are not categorized as sensitive disappear from the library at the end of their serving period. The study data reinforces the importance of regulating platforms to make them safer and more reliable for consumers, intermediaries and advertisers.