Meta promised to stop illegal financial ads from showing in the UK. A recent check by the regulator found they failed to do this over 1,000 times in just a week. This puts more pressure on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to do more to stop very risky promotions aimed at people in the UK, promotions that easily go from being very pushy advertising to being complete frauds.
FCA review finds more than 1,000 illegal financial ads in a week
In November 2025, the FCA looked at Meta’s platforms and found 1,052 ads about trading currencies and complicated financial investments (called derivatives) from companies that aren’t allowed to market them in the UK.
More than half of these ads, 56%, were from advertisers the FCA had already told Meta were causing problems. A second check in December had almost the same result, meaning that a small number of the same people breaking the rules are responsible for the majority of the issues.
The FCA is focused on currency trading and “contracts for difference” because they are very risky. Both are complicated, prices change quickly and they are often advertised with promises of making money fast. In the UK there are strict rules about what warnings must be given about the risks, and who is allowed to advertise them.
The FCA says they’ve spoken to Meta many times, but haven’t seen a significant improvement in how Meta prevents or removes illegal financial advertising. They say fraud is the most common crime in the UK, and social media platforms are a major way it’s spread.
Why the UK remains vulnerable to scam ads
The UK’s Online Safety Act started to come into effect in 2025, but the part of it that would allow regulators to fine companies for paid scam ads won’t be in place until at least 2027. This creates a serious problem: people expect to be safe, but the ability to enforce safety isn’t there yet.
The FCA isn’t able to fine Meta for paid ads. Ofcom, the organization that regulates communications, oversees the platforms, but they also can’t do anything about paid scam ads until that part of the Online Safety Act is in effect. Ofcom says they’re working quickly and have suggested using automatic systems to find scam ads.
Because there aren’t strong punishments, Meta voluntarily said in 2022 that only companies approved by the FCA would be allowed to advertise financial services in the UK. But the FCA’s latest tests suggest this hasn’t regularly led to a proper, large-scale prevention of the ads.
What makes things even harder is that many of the dishonest advertisers are based outside the UK. The FCA can warn the public, take action against those breaking the law in the UK, and ask the platforms to take down illegal ads. However, advertising networks that work across borders continue to exist, hiding who is responsible for the ads, what websites they link to and where the ads will take you, so they can reuse the same scams.
Meta’s response and verification measures
Meta disagrees with how the FCA describes the situation. A spokesperson for Meta said they strongly fight fraud, act quickly on most reports (within a few days) and don’t ignore warnings from the FCA. They also say advertisers must follow UK law and have FCA approval when advertising financial services.
Meta says they are getting better at checking and enforcing rules. They say the percentage of total advertising money coming from advertisers they’ve checked and confirmed as legitimate went from 55% at the end of 2024 to 70% in 2025. They’re also testing extra protections that should work around the world.
But, papers from within Meta that are mentioned in the report admit that a huge number of people globally (billions) have seen ads related to fraudulent investments, illegal casinos and medical products you aren’t allowed to buy. This shows how big the overall problem is.
Meta says their systems limit how far suspicious promotions go and that outside people who are critical of Meta use their own opinions when they say something looks like a scam. The company says it’s putting money into improved tools and more equal checking of ads in each country.
Testing the safeguards: different results in the UK and Australia
Testing how well the safety measures work showed that things aren’t the same in the UK and Australia. A reporter who wasn’t connected to the company made a likely fake investment advertisement promising 10% returns each week, and then tried to put it on both the UK and Australian sites. In both places the person running the ad didn’t say it was about money/investments.
In the UK the ad went live with no one looking at it further, until the reporter took it down. In Australia, Meta stopped the ad and asked for proof that it was allowed by the rules. Australia requires financial advertisement companies to prove they’re legitimate and can fine them up to $50 million Australian dollars if they don’t.
Meta said Australia blocked the ad because of improvements to their processes in that particular country. This incident shows that stronger laws, and not only technology, can really change how carefully platforms check promotions that could lose you a lot of money.
Consumer risk and industry pressure
Regarding the danger to customers and pressure from the financial industry, a group for digital rights looked over Meta’s ad collection for two weeks last summer. They searched for ads mentioning three large British banks and used a list of things to look out for as possible scams. They figured roughly half of the ads they found were probably scams, and estimated people in Britain and the EU would see these scams tens of millions of times a year.
Meta disagreed with how the group did their research and said that probably fewer people see the scam ads than genuine ads, because Meta limits how widely they are shown. However, people are increasingly thinking there’s a problem. A large number of people in the UK asked in a survey believe tech companies should do more to stop scams.
Banks and financial technology companies are adding to the demand for more controls. One fintech company in the UK said Meta’s sites are where most of the reports of people being tricked into sending money to scammers come from. Consumer groups say platforms should see this as a financial issue, and not only a problem with the technology, and spend more money to stop scammers.
Police have done well to stop scam networks overseas that are targeting people in the UK and the government says it will continue to push platforms to get better. But without the ability to properly enforce the rules over paid ads, those in charge of regulating things are always one step behind scammers who are quick to adapt.
What comes next: enforcement, policy options, and best practices
What happens next? Enforcement, what the rules could be, and what would be best to do. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says it will continue to test Meta’s systems for finding problems, share information and warn people about companies that aren’t authorized. Ofcom is preparing to enforce rules in the future using the Online Safety Act and has told platforms to use automatic fraud detection.
The possible rule changes are fairly obvious. Requiring all financial promotions in the UK to have approval before they go out from the FCA would close the hole where companies just say they’re okay. Platforms could check against the FCA list of authorized companies at the same time as the ad is being shown, make sure companies prove who they are, and ban people who keep breaking the rules across all platforms.
Meta could make it harder to run ads for high-risk keywords, stop promotions guaranteeing or giving very high returns, and require companies offering financial services to have a verified business bank account for payments for the ads. A public list of ads you can search, with clearer details of where they came from, would make people more responsible.
For you, the user, basic safety is still important. Always check companies on the FCA list before you use them. See promises of guaranteed or weekly returns as a warning. Carefully examine website addresses and email addresses. Don’t rush into any investment after being contacted unexpectedly, and tell the platform about ads you think are suspicious.
For legitimate advertisers, following the rules isn’t optional. Make sure you clearly say what the risks are, don’t exaggerate your claims, and make sure your FCA approval is up to date. Being marked as a problem on major platforms can seriously harm your reputation, even if you didn’t intend to do anything wrong.
Meta is at the middle of a growing problem with rules. The FCA review claims that despite a public promise, illegal financial ads still got through more than 1,000 times in a single week. Until there are stronger rules, the same checking in all places and more reasons for companies to behave properly, people in the UK will continue to be at risk from promotions that shouldn’t have been shown in the first place.
