Every day, millions of Europeans encounter financial scam ads on Meta, TikTok and Google, many of them targeting people already struggling with the cost of living. The platforms are not only failing to remove them; they are actively profiting from them, having taken down just 21 per cent of nearly 1,000 fraudulent ads that investigators flagged. Now 29 consumer groups from 27 countries have filed formal complaints with the European Commission, demanding action under the Digital Services Act.
The consumer groups conducted their investigation between December 2025 and March 2026, reporting the ads directly to the platforms. Meta removed 43 per cent of the submitted ads and Google 60 per cent. TikTok removed just 21 per cent, claiming that in 37 per cent of cases the ad had already come down before it could review it.
“This is not good enough,” said Agustín Reyna, Director General of BEUC. “Scammers will continue to reach millions of European consumers daily, leaving people at risk of losing hundreds to thousands of euros to fraud.”
“Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), Meta, TikTok and Google are required to have effective mechanisms in place to fight fraudulent ads and reduce the risks to consumers. Unfortunately, our research shows alarming discrepancies between what these platforms claim to do and the reality of what is happening. In fact, Meta, TikTok and Google not only fail to pro-actively remove fraudulent ads. They also do little when being notified about such scams,” he added.
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Targeting the most vulnerable
Speaking to EU Perspectives, he elaborated: “We looked at a set of scams that generally promise ways to make money – from crypto scams to payday loans. They are deliberately targeting vulnerable people, particularly at the moment with increased cost of living and pressure on household budgets. This is who the majority of these scammers want to reach. However it is worth noting that we selected the most obvious scams. A lot of others most likely fall between the cracks. So our estimate is already conservative and the situation is probably much worse than that in reality.”
All the responsibility should not be on the shoulders of the consumers to be constantly vigilant.
— Agustín Reyna, Director General, BEUC
“In the UK they have taken much more drastic measures to protect people from these scams. Europe is moving forward too with the latest reform of the payments legislation, but these rules are not yet enforceable. Fraudsters are adaptable. They are using social engineering to defraud people. They don’t steal your credentials. In Europe that is quite difficult to do. Instead, they use mechanisms to make duped individuals make the payment themselves. But all the responsibility should not be on the shoulders of the consumers to be constantly vigilant. The social media platforms are making money off these scams too as they are paid ads. They have a responsibility to act to protect consumers,” said Mr Reyna.
Calls for action
BEUC and the consumer groups want the European Commission to take meaningful enforcement action. They want it to launch, or speed up where applicable, investigations into the social media giants — and impose fines for breaches of the law. The Commission can levy fines of up to 6 per cent of global annual turnover for major platforms.
Under the DSA, the Commission can also impose “remedies” — measures that the companies must take to solve the problem. Where this happens, or the platforms “propose commitments to change their practices,” the complainants want the Commission to ensure that “interested third parties are given a meaningful opportunity to submit their views on those commitments.”
Industry-wide problem
In response, TikTok said it takes reports of suspected scam ads seriously and reviews content against policies and applicable law. TikTok’s Community Guidelines prohibit fraudulent, deceptive and misleading advertising.
“Where we identify violations, we take action against the ad and, where appropriate, the advertiser’s account”, TikTok said. The platform added that more than 143.8 million fake accounts were prevented. “TikTok invests in detection, review, reporting tools, advertiser controls, and enforcement to reduce the risk of people encountering this type of content. When we become aware of this type of violative content, we take it down. TikTok’s own most recent quarterly Community Guidelines Enforcement Report says that more than 97.7 per cent of the violative frauds and scam content we removed was taken down before it was reported to us.”
As the social media companies pointed out, scams are an industry-wide challenge and bad actors constantly adapt their tactics across online services. TikTok, Google and Meta have all signed the Global Public-Private Partnership Framework against Fraud, the UN and Interpol initiative.
According to a European Banking Authority report on fraud published last December, the highest overall reported losses due to fraud were reported for credit transfers and card payments. These reached €2.2bn and €1.3bn, respectively, for 2024. Of course, consumers may not report fraud to their bank, so overall figures are likely higher. The Commission has not yet confirmed whether it will open formal proceedings. For millions of Europeans encountering scam ads daily, the wait is already costly.
