Bethany Alvaro 
New research from Bitdefender has indicated that 52 per cent of digital advertising scams so far this year have targeted Australians on Meta platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram.
Over 400,000 ads were tracked to more than 12,000 individual paid scam campaigns in the Asia-Pacific region, resulting in millions of people being exposed to potential fraud.
“Australians are being served scam ads that impersonate the Reserve Bank of Australia, well-known financial platforms, and local media outlets,” Bitdefender said in a press statement about the report.
“Rather than crude spam, these are carefully constructed campaigns designed to feel credible using fake breaking news stories, fabricated celebrity endorsements, and realistic-looking websites to build trust before the deception begins.
“Every campaign ran through paid advertising on Meta platforms, meaning scammers were paying to place their content directly in front of everyday users.”
Financial scams were the most common type, with many campaigns posing as trusted investment or insurance platforms.
Health-related scam networks were among the top categories, with sleep-improvement and weight-loss remedies being the main fabrications used to lure victims.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, AI was a key feature in the language and imagery associated with these scams. This is especially evident in the scams that promote urgency in a “breaking news” style of fraud advertising.
“What distinguishes this threat from typical online fraud is the level of organisation and resourcing behind it,” Bitdefender said.
“These campaigns are not simply opportunistic, as scammers operate with the same tools and discipline as legitimate advertisers, using paid distribution, tested creative, and coordinated infrastructure.
“This makes the scams significantly more difficult to detect.”
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