Report flags half of Taiwan farm product ads on Meta as possible scams

報告指台灣農產品Meta廣告近半數疑為詐騙

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Scam groups are posing as local farmers and luring consumers into buying fake products online, according to a new report by Taiwanese cybersecurity firm Gogolook.

The report analyzed 4,461 agricultural product advertisements posted on Meta platforms over 18 days in August and classified 2,271, or 50.9%, as high-risk impersonation ads.

The findings echo an April warning from the government’s Anti-Fraud Command Center, which said agricultural products were the most common category among shopping scams circulating on Facebook and Threads. The products ranged from garlic and eggs to blueberries and tomatoes, per CNA.

The report identified two main types of agricultural product scams. The first involves fake farmer accounts that contact users directly, while the second uses one-page advertisements to lead consumers into making purchases.

In the first type, scammers use Taiwanese names and build followings of more than 100 people to make their accounts appear legitimate before contacting users through Messenger.

The second type uses disposable accounts with few followers. In one case, 113 identical advertisements promoting Pingtung “organic cinnamon powder” were posted by 12 accounts, each with fewer than 10 followers.

Fu Yu-ling (傅郁玲), who oversees Gogolook’s anti-fraud protection service, said the scams rely heavily on local knowledge because they target specific agricultural products, regional brands, and farmers, according to a press release.

She said AI-powered detection tools monitor local brands and farmers’ identities in real time, allowing fraudulent advertisements to be identified and removed more quickly.

The analysis found that Pingtung had the highest number of high-risk advertisements, followed by Tainan and Nantou. Some promoted “Nantou organic notoginseng powder,” although the herb is not grown in Taiwan, the report said.

Gogolook spokesperson Kara Yang (楊莞儀) told Taiwan News that the project began through a collaboration with the Yunlin County Government. The company reported fraudulent advertisements involving Yunlin products to Meta, which subsequently removed them.

Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan (張麗善) told PTS in July that the key to preventing scams is stopping consumers from seeing fraudulent advertisements in the first place.