FTC asks if ad platforms should answer for impersonation scam ads

FTC asks if ad platforms should answer for impersonation scam ads

1 October 2026: The US Federal Trade Commission has opened a comment period on whether search engines, social media services and online marketplaces should carry some of the cost when their ad tools help impersonation scams reach consumers. The notice does not propose a rule. It asks the public whether one is needed, and comments must arrive by 30 November 2026.

Not yet independently verified. Both sources are the same Federal Register notice. We have not seen any platform response, and the notice proposes nothing yet: it only asks whether a rule is needed. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

The agency says the question falls outside its existing Impersonation Rule, which it finalised in March 2024 and which bars impersonating government bodies and businesses. That rule does not expressly cover platform conduct. The FTC argues that platforms earn revenue from paid advertising, scam ads included, while the social cost of those scams falls on the victims. In its words, the aim would be to make platforms bear the cost of optimising fraudulent ads.

The notice leans on the agency's own figures. Consumers reported losing about $16 billion to fraud in 2025, up 25% on 2024, and imposter scams alone produced more than 1 million reports and nearly $3.5 billion in reported losses. Almost 30% of people who reported losing money said the contact began on social media, with reported losses of $2.1 billion. The FTC also cites press reports and lawsuits, including an estimate attributed to Meta safety staff that its platforms were involved in about one third of successful scams in the United States.

The agency asks for information on how platforms earn from advertising and ad optimisation, how ad tools such as content creation and audience targeting are used by scammers, and whether those practices are unfair or deceptive under section 5 of the FTC Act. It lists three possible routes: amending the Impersonation Rule, writing a new rule, or relying on alternatives such as consumer education and voluntary industry measures.

The notice follows a stalled earlier step. A 2024 supplemental proposal to extend the rule to those who provide the means and instrumentalities of impersonation drew objections that the language was too broad, and the Commission says it is still weighing its options on the individual-impersonation provision after a January 2025 hearing.

Comments are filed on regulations.gov under matter number R207000, or on paper to the FTC's Office of the Secretary in Washington. Advertisers and agencies that buy through these platforms, and vendors of ad verification and brand protection tools, are the groups most likely to have evidence the agency is asking for.

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Sources

• Federal Trade Commission, Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses (Federal Register, FR Doc. 2026-20143), 1 October 2026
• Federal Register notice, PDF (govinfo.gov), 1 October 2026