Tenable Research Unearths A Troubling Trend of Dubious Ads on TikTok’s #ForYou Page

On September 3, I published a report on an investigation into a series of dubious ads I encountered on TikTok since the beginning of 2020. TikTok advertisements are placed within TikTok’s popular “#ForYou” page, an algorithmically driven section of the app that users spend the bulk of their time on.

During the course of my research, I observed a variety of ads promoting deceitful and questionable mobile apps hosted on Apple’s App Store, diet and male enhancement pills, free products and gift cards, dropshipped goods being sold at jacked up prices or of a questionable nature, and services that claim to lower your credit score, provide low cost health insurance, or assist in getting financial aid.

To read the full report about my research, please visit our blog.

Please note that this is the third blog post looking into scams on TikTok.

1. TikTok Scams: How Popular Apps and Services Become New Havens for Scammers
2. TikTok Scams: How Social Currency Fuels the Economy for Impersonation Accounts and Free-Followers-and-Likes Services