About a year after the three reports produced by NetLab UFRJ on fraudulent advertisements involving the government programs Desenrola Brasil and Voa Brasil were published, a new analysis has been published including data collected between July and August 2024, showing that fraudulent content related to the two programs continues to be promoted on Meta's platforms.
In total, we identified 643 new fraudulent advertisements that used the same malicious tactics to carry out financial scams as those reported in 2023: exploitation and manipulation of excerpts from news programs, falsification of news portals and the redirection of users to fake websites of companies such as Serasa, to name a few examples.
The research provides new evidence of systemic flaws in the way advertising is broadcast by Meta and points out potential risks of harm to consumers, especially vulnerable groups, who continue to be targets of fraudulent campaigns promoted by inauthentic advertisers.
This report is the last part of Study 2: Disinformation ecosystem culminating in financial transactions, carried out within the scope of the Disinformation Industry Observatory and its Impact on Consumer Relations in Brazil project, a technical collaboration between NetLab UFRJ and FDD/Ministry of Justice. All information about the project can be found here.
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ACCESS TO DATA
If you wish to access the database for this report, please send an email to netlab@eco.ufrj.br identifying yourself, explaining why you are interested in the data and how it will be used. NetLab will evaluate your request and contact you.
NOTICE
This report is an independent production of NetLab UFRJ. All decisions regarding this work were made exclusively by the researchers at the laboratory. The funders of NetLab UFRJ have no influence over the laboratory's research agenda and did not participate in any stage of the production of this report.
Information about NetLab UFRJ's funding sources is available here.