Digging into Facebook ads: finding clues that indicate a scam pattern

The paper by Bitdefender developer Andrei Serbanoiu, titled Digging into Facebook ads: finding clues that indicate a scam pattern and presented at the recent Virus Bulletin conference, is now available from the Bitdefender website, here.

Based on a six-month analysis, the paper focuses primarily on a scam assessment model for Facebook ads. The researcher digs for clues and spam patterns replicated in these personalized commercials. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the distribution of topics (weight loss, replica watches, work-at-home scams etc.), then the attributes the ads share with spam. The presentation also shows the shortcomings of Facebook ad policy enforcement through examples.