Debunk.org Investigation Uncovers 50,000+ Scam Ads Impersonating Interpol, Europol, and EU Institutions Across Europe

Supported by Oxylabs’ Project 4β, the investigation exposed a coordinated cross-border scam network targeting victims of financial fraud with fake recovery offers.

VILNIUS, Lithuania, May 5, 2026 – Debunk.org, an independent research organization focused on disinformation, fraud, and online manipulation, has uncovered a large-scale scam network operating across Europe. Supported by Oxylabs’ pro bono initiative Project 4β, the investigation found campaigns impersonating Interpol, Europol, EU institutions, and national cyber police.

The investigation identified 50,426 ads, 459 domains, and 1,139 related web pages linked to the operation, with an estimated reach of 52.7 million people across the EU. The campaigns targeted people who had already lost money to fraud, directing them to deceptive websites designed to collect personal data and extract upfront fees, under the false promise of fund recovery.

Using Oxylabs’ proxy infrastructure through Project 4β, Debunk.org was able to investigate the operation at scale and trace patterns across domains, landing pages, recurring templates, and multilingual campaign variants. The findings point to a coordinated ecosystem rather than isolated scams.

“Our assessment is that these scam operations are a massive systemic risk related to the Digital Services Act (DSA). It doesn’t matter how many times we report this illegal content and META takes it down – the next day, new scam pages and ads with Interpol and Europol scams will again appear on META platforms. From our analysis, it looks like META is not even trying to take steps to prevent this risk. If they did, we would not see new scams the next day with the same topic and principle mechanism,” said Viktoras Daukšas, Head of Debunk.org.

The investigation found that the campaign was not aimed at the general public. Instead, it targeted people already affected by fraudulent brokers, crypto schemes, or phone scams, as well as those actively searching for ways to recover their funds. In many cases, the promise of “compensation” could feel like a final chance to recover what they had lost.

It also identified a clear operational pattern: ads, pages, and domains were short-lived and rapidly replaced. When one asset was removed, another often appeared shortly after under a slightly different name or visual identity, allowing the operation to continue despite enforcement actions.

“Modern online fraud is difficult to stop because once one fake website is taken down, another can appear almost instantly. This case shows why access to public web data and the right technological capabilities is essential for researchers and investigators working to uncover patterns across websites, domains, and campaigns,” said Denas Grybauskas, Chief Governance and Strategy Officer at Oxylabs. “Our collaboration with Debunk.org demonstrates how public-interest partnerships can help expose sophisticated criminal ecosystems that operate across borders.”

Project 4β was created to help public-interest organizations turn public web data into actionable insights. By supporting partners like Debunk.org, the initiative enables large-scale investigations into online fraud, disinformation, emerging digital threats, and other challenges that affect society.

Through Project 4β, Oxylabs provides free access to its public web data collection solutions for academic institutions, researchers, NGOs, and non-profit organizations tackling critical societal challenges. Organizations working on public-interest missions are invited to join the program.

About Oxylabs

Established in 2015, Oxylabs is a web intelligence platform and premium proxy provider, enabling companies of all sizes to utilise the power of big data. Constant innovation, an extensive patent portfolio, and a focus on ethics have allowed Oxylabs to become a global leader in the web intelligence collection industry and forge close ties with dozens of Fortune Global 500 companies. Oxylabs was named Europe's fastest-growing web intelligence acquisition company in the Financial Times FT 1000 list for several consecutive years. For more information, please visit: https://oxylabs.io/ 

About Debunk.org

Debunk.org is an independent technology think tank and NGO that carries out disinformation analysis and runs educational media literacy campaigns in 8 countries. The organisation has worked in the disinformation countering field since 2017. Our team focuses on a wide range of topics, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the migration crisis on the EU border with Belarus, COVID-19, NATO, hybrid warfare, energy politics, and monitoring elections. Debunk.org took part in the Ukraine War Disinfo Work Group, which unites NGO’s and research centers from 14 countries and provides weekly reports on disinformation spread by the Kremlin about its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For more information, please visit https://www.debunk.org

Media Contact:
Kristina Sprindyte
Email: press@oxylabs.io
Website: https://oxylabs.io
Phone: +370 655 34419

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