A watchdog group has identified 63 scam advertisers on Meta’s platforms—including Facebook and Instagram—who have collectively spent $49 million on advertisements promoting fake government benefits. These scammers have exploited deep‑fake videos of American politicians, including former President Donald Trump, to target seniors with ads offering bogus stimulus checks, government‑spending cards, and healthcare payments. The nonprofit Tech Transparency Project (TTP) found that these ads have reached tens of thousands of users.
The scammers are taking advantage of advances in artificial‑intelligence technology and public confusion around social‑safety‑net programs to lure new victims. Although Meta’s policies prohibit scams, TTP says the company has allowed this activity to continue. Meta requires advertisers who wish to run political ads in the United States to undergo a special authorization process, which includes submitting an official ID and a U.S. mailing address. Yet TTP discovered that all 63 scam advertisers had their advertisements removed by Meta within the past 12 months for policy violations, and nearly half of them were still advertising recently.
One advertiser, the Relief Eligibility Center, ran an ad featuring a deep‑fake video of Trump falsely promising stimulus checks to Americans. The video was targeted at men and women over the age of 65 in more than 20 U.S. states. Professional fact‑checkers have warned about bogus stimulus‑check offers circulating on social‑media platforms for years. The latest findings underscore the explosion of online fraud, with surveys showing a growing number of American adults experiencing internet scams or impersonation attacks.
In August, the Federal Trade Commission reported a significant increase in complaints from older adults who lost substantial amounts of money to scammers impersonating trusted government agencies or businesses. Meta has said it will invest in new technical defenses to prevent scams, noting that scammers constantly evolve their tactics to evade detection. The company appeared to disable 35 ad accounts, but only after they had run dozens or hundreds of ads; six of those accounts spent over $1 million before being disabled or deleted. This issue highlights the need for continued vigilance and improvement in content moderation to protect users from online scams.
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