“Silent Push Threat Analysts are tracking a massive “fake marketplace” scam that uses thousands of fake websites to abuse dozens of major brands and buy Facebook ads to promote its scam products. Our team is labeling this group “GhostVendors,” and we suspect they are also purchasing ads on other networks to self-promote their scam sites. We will update this report accordingly as our investigation continues. Our team also confirmed how a Facebook advertiser can buy ads which show up in the Meta Ad Library while they are running, and then stop their campaigns, thereby removing all evidence of their posted ads from the Meta Ad Library. In early May 2025, we documented the appearance of ads from this threat actor group that were searchable in the Ad Library, five days later, all evidence of their presence was removed from the Ad Library due to the ad campaigns stopping. This helped to confirm a known Meta ad library policy existed, and highlighted that potentially these threat actors were taking advantage of this by rapidly launching and stopping ads for similar products on different pages. Based on the brands being impersonated, this campaign appears to focus on impersonating brands that buy large amounts of online ads—many of the impersonated brands are huge and well-known for purchasing significant quantities of ads. In contrast, other brands being impersonated are smaller ones that mostly use online sales processes. Brands our team has observed being targeted by the GhostVendors campaign include: Amazon, Costco, Bath & Body Works, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lowes, L.L. Bean, Tommy Bahama, Rolex, Brooks Running, Birkenstock, Crocs, Skechers, Total Wine, Omaha Steaks, Instacart, Duluth Trading, Advance Auto Parts, Party City, Dollar General, Tractor Supply, Joann, Big Lots, Orvis, Alo Yoga, On Running, Tom Ford Beauty, Rebecca Minkoff, Yankee Candle, Hoka, Thrive Market, Vionic Shoes, Rock Bottom Golf, Vuori Clothing, Goyard, Icebreaker Clothing, NOBULL Sportswear, Alpha Industries, Volcom, Kizik Shoes, Vessi Shoes, Mammut Outdoor Gear, Buffalo Games & Puzzles, Ravensburger Puzzles, Fast Growing Trees, Gurney’s Seed and Nursery, Vivobarefoot, KaDeWe, Palmetto State Armory, Natural Life, Luke’s Lobster, Cousins Maine Lobster, White Oak Pastures, Seven Sons Farm, Arcade1Up Gaming, EGO Power+ Tools, Cobble Hill Puzzles, Popflex, Argos UK, Huk Clothing, 44 Farms, Tyner Pond Farm, Pipers Farms, Rebel Sport, The Woobles Crochet, Massimo Dutti, and GE Appliances….”