Marta Golpista / Marta The Scammer

Overview

Marta Golpista or Marta The Scammer in English, sometimes referred to as "Marta Golpista De Uberlândia," is the nickname of the Brazilian Marta Maria Mendes de Paula, who is known for her history of registered scams in the interior of Minas Gerais, Brazil. She became a meme on social media around July 2015 after people from the city of Uberlândia created a Facebook group to complain about her scams.

History

On July 2nd, 2015, the Facebook^[1] page @uberlandiablitz made a post asking "Quem é Marta Golpista?" (English: "Who Is Marta the Scammer?") to its followers, which garnered 4 likes and 27 comments in nine years. People in the comment section explained that Marta Maria Mendes de Paula became known as "Marta Golpista" in the city of Uberlância, Minas Gerais, after some local establishments noticed that she was not paying for services like fixing her hair, clothes and more. User Thallila De Orleans posted a screenshot (seen below) showing a Facebook^[2] group called "Marta Golpista de Uberlância" (English: "Marta The Scammer From Uberlândia"), which had 5,267 members at the time and has since been deleted. The group was focused on spotting the scammer in the city and warning other people of her behavior.

"Let's unite and end her morale, post here where she goes and how she's acting."

Arrest

Before going viral on social media, Marta already had "scammer" fame in the neighborhood she lived in Mina Gerais. On July 11th, 2011, local news channel TVVitoriosa^[6] posted a video of the arrest of Marta Golpista, who was accused of stealing from local businesses in the region. The video (seen below) garnered 62,000 views and 1,200 likes in 12 years.

Online Presence

Marta has been featured in several memes poking fun at her being spotted in the city she lives. The Brazilian remained a local gossip rumor by Uberlândia citizens until January 2019, when some posts from the Facebook group dedicated to spotting Marta scamming people went viral and she became a meme on social media. A video of her interaction with a person accusing her of owing money was posted on January 29th, 2019 by the meme page FigurasPubcptm on Facebook,^[3] receiving 340,000 views and 4,900 likes in four years (seen below).

The video quickly spread on social media, with "Marta Golplista" becoming a trending topic on Brazilian Twitter. For instance, Twitter^[4] user @luscas posted a tweet on January 31st, 2019, wondering if Marta had committed any scams on that day. The tweet (seen below, top) received 19,200 likes and 5,000 retweets in four years. Another Twitter^[5] user, @luquinha, posted on the same day, sharing his desire to visit Uberlândia and find Marta just to let people know where she is trying to scam people. The tweet (seen below, bottom) garnered 594 likes and 126 retweets in four years.

Parodies

The success of Marta's video being inquired by a woman on January 2019 inspired countless parody videos on the internet. The most notable is an animation posted on YouTube by @Rabisco^[7] on March 8th, 2019. The video garnered 6 million views and 478,000 likes in four years. (seen below)

Search Interest

External References