There was no such person in Harrisburg, Pa., where Mr. Redick said he lived. The high school and college he listed had never heard of him. And when The Times asked Facebook about him — as well as other profiles that appeared to be the work of Russians — the company concluded that they were impostors and removed them from the social network.

The Times article noted that one of the Redick photos showed him sitting in a bar in Brazil. In another, a bedroom seemed to have a Brazilian-style electrical outlet. G1, the online news operation of Globo, Brazil’s biggest media conglomerate, noticed the puzzle and crowdsourced it, asking readers for help.

On Saturday, the site reproduced images The Times had taken from the Facebook page, including pictures of the man and his daughter. “Do you know these people?” the headline said.

A reader spotted the photos and recognized her son-in-law, Charles David Costacurta, 36, of the city Jundiaí in southeastern Brazil. Mr. Costacurta was suspicious at first, said Carlos Dias, a G1 reporter, but eventually agreed to meet at a television station.