Will A UK Ban On Scam Ads Actually Help With Fraud On Social Media?

Millions of people scroll past investment deals, cloned celebrity endorsements and unbelievable shopping offers that fill social media every day, and many struggle to tell the difference between a genuine advert and a criminal scam.

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, wants to make those adverts much harder for criminals to publish. New proposals under the Online Safety Act would place legal duties on the biggest social media and search platforms to tackle fraudulent advertising before people see it.

The proposal comes after research from Ofcom found that 51% of adults have seen potentially fraudulent adverts online, and 36% say they see them frequently. Victims lose more than £200 million to these scams each year on average. Digital advertising also generates more than £40 billion annually across the UK, according to Ofcom.

What Would The New Rules Require?

Ofcom wants platforms to ban accounts used for scam adverts and stop those users from opening replacement accounts. The regulator also wants companies to verify advertisers claiming to represent genuine businesses, check that financial advertisers have authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority, strengthen account security and give trusted organisations such as law enforcement a dedicated way to report scam adverts for removal.

The proposals also call for technology that filters fraudulent adverts before publication. Companies would also need to thoroughly test AI advert making tools to stop criminals using them for scams.

Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s Online Safety Group Director, said, “For too long, victims have been exposed to scam ads online with tech giants simply not doing enough to combat the fraudsters using their platforms.

“Today we’ve set out nearly 40 practical, protective measures for companies to adopt. We expect firms to take robust action to stamp out scam ads and boot out the bad actors behind them to safeguard their users.

“Platforms should not drag their heels – they can start making improvements for their users now. And sites and apps that fail to meet their legal duties, once in force, can expect to face serious consequences.”

Companies that fail to meet their legal duties could face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue, whichever amount is greater.

Would Scammers Simply Work Around The Rules?

The proposals could remove many lower effort scam campaigns, yet organised criminal networks may continue adapting their methods.

Gabriele Vitke, Product Marketing Team Lead at Decodo, said the biggest advantage comes from stopping repeat offenders from returning under new identities.

She said, “The real value in Ofcom’s rules is targeting account recidivism, since scam networks currently just reopen under a new identity the moment they’re banned. But fraud operations run on automation and rotating infrastructure, so this only works if platforms can detect reused patterns behind the scenes, not just pull down flagged ads one by one. With final rules not landing until mid 2027, scammers have a long runway to adapt using AI generated ads before enforcement even starts. Expect this to clear out low effort scammers while the well funded operations simply route around it.”

Ofcom is accepting responses to the consultation until 2 October before publishing final decisions next year. Existing legal duties already apply to fraudulent content outside paid advertising, and the regulator says companies can start improving their systems immediately.

Steve Smart, executive director lead for fighting financial crime at the Financial Conduct Authority, said, “We support Ofcom’s proposals for cracking down on online fraud which has a devastating impact on victims and undermines the financial system.

“Tech firms must do more to proactively prevent scam adverts targeting UK consumers and businesses. They don’t have to wait for these new rules and should step up now.”

More Experts Share: Will A Ban Actually Help With Fraud On Social Media?

More experts share their views on whether the ban would actually help with online fraud, and here’s what they shared…

Jeff Watkins, Chief AI Officer of Leeds-based Artificial Intelligence Consultancy NorthStar Intelligence, says, “A ban on scam adverts would be an effective way to help reduce fraud, because it hits one of the most important entry points into the scam sales funnel. Social media (including things like YouTube) and search engines provide access to vast audiences, with the ability to use targeting and the borrowed credibility of the platform they’re advertising on. It has always surprised me how poor the filtering from big tech has been to date, with the boom in Generative AI making the scam advertisement problem much worse over the last few years. There are multiple kinds of scams in play: cheap products being oversold through deceptive marketing; deepfakes of public figures, such as Martin Lewis, promoting financial scams; and straight-up impersonation of organisations.

“It’s worth noting, though, that the proposal being made isn’t quite a blanket ban on scam advertising; rather, Ofcom has proposed a code requiring the VLOPs (such as social-media and search platforms) to prevent and remove fraudulent paid-for advertisements, verify advertisers more effectively, shut down repeat offenders and protect accounts from being hijacked to run scams. The consultation runs until the 2nd October 2026, with implementation expected in 2027.

“This kind of change in legal accountability is required because voluntary commitments have not been sufficient, and new scams regularly pop up from new accounts. Relying on users reporting advertisements really should never have been the solution, and in many cases this system has failed, allowing scam advertisements to remain live for an unacceptable amount of time.

“Changes in the rules will not eradicate this problem, likely pushing scams further towards organic posts, the use of compromised accounts, influencer leverage, moves to messaging app scams, cloned websites, and search engine manipulation. This move should be seen as part of a layered suite of defences, rather than a complete solution. It needs to be accompanied by stronger disruption of fraudulent accounts, better intelligence sharing among banks, telcos, and big tech, and improved fraud detection by banks. Reducing the fraud originating from scam advertising will likely have a meaningful effect, but we need a joined-up response.

“The real test of success won’t be takedown statistics, because these suggest the initial ingress is at fault, allowing these adverts to be posted in the first place. Rather, the outcomes we need to see are reductions in fraud cases and victim losses.”

Megan Dooley, Head of Organic Social Media at TAL Agency, says, “While I agree that a UK ban on scam ads would help, it would be a mistake to assume that it would solve the problem of social media fraud entirely on its own.

“Social media platforms have become wiser at targeting their users with specific advertising, and unfortunately scammers have learned how to exploit these methods for their own gains. Removing fraudulent paid ads would make it harder for these kinds of operations to scale quickly, as this currently allows them to reach thousands of people with convincing scams, fake stores, or phishing campaigns.

“But, fraudsters are always evolving. If paid scam ads become more difficult or near impossible to run, then the scammers will simply move onto organic content, direct messages, or creating fake profiles or private groups. When one avenue closes, another opens soon after.

“The success of any ban on social media scam ads will depend almost entirely on its enforcement. Platforms will need to become better at identifying and removing scam content quickly, verifying advertisers more thoroughly, and responding quickly if potential fraudulent campaigns are reported. Without consistent and rigorous enforcement, a ban becomes nothing more than a deterrent.

“At the end of the day, legislation is only one piece of the puzzle. While a ban would certainly be a positive step in the right direction, this also needs to be combined with better platform security, improved detection through AI, strong identity verification, and ongoing public education about spotting scams online.”