The FTC wants to know if ad optimization helps impersonators. The tools in question are yours too.

The Federal Trade Commission has been fighting impersonation scams for years. What changed on September 24, 2026 is who it is asking about. The agency is considering whether to update its Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses, or take other action, to stop online platforms from engaging in ad-optimization practices that may be furthering those scams. [1] The head of its consumer protection bureau put the theory in one sentence.

Today’s impersonation scams are no longer the work of isolated con artists; they are sophisticated, highly engineered operations powered by the same advertising and targeting tools that platforms sell to legitimate businesses.

Christopher Mufarrige, Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection

Read that as an advertiser. The tools in question are the targeting, the automated creative, and the delivery optimization you buy every day. The FTC is not proposing to take them away. It is asking whether a platform that optimizes a scammer’s ad as diligently as yours should carry some responsibility for the result, and every answer it could reach runs through how platforms decide who is allowed to advertise.

What the FTC is actually asking

The notice is an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, the step before a proposed rule, and it asks questions rather than answering them. [1] It wants to know the financial incentives that drive platforms to offer ad-optimization tools, how each tool optimizes the content and delivery of an ad, and what platforms already do to prevent those tools being used for deceptive advertising. [1] It asks whether the tools themselves amount to unfair or deceptive practices by furthering impersonation scams, and whether the answer should be an amended Impersonation Rule, a new rule, or no rule at all. [1]

The list of possible measures is the part to plan around: vetting advertisers, monitoring posted ads, investigating suspected impersonation ads, removing confirmed ones, and pursuing disciplinary action against the offending advertisers. [1] Comments are due 60 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register, which is a different date from 60 days after the press release. [1]

What the platforms report

Both large platforms publish enforcement numbers, and both describe removals rather than prevalence.

Those are large numbers, and they answer a different question from the FTC’s. A removal count tells you how much the systems caught, not how much got through, how long it ran, or how well it was targeted before it came down. The FTC’s own figure, nearly $3.5 billion reported lost to impersonation in a year, is the other side of the same ledger, and it counts only what people reported. [1] Neither side publishes the denominator that would settle the argument.

Verification is the answer you will feel

Whatever the FTC concludes, the platforms have already chosen their main defense, and it lands on every advertiser. Google says that as part of a gradual rollout of its transparency efforts, all advertisers will eventually be required to complete advertiser verification, and that accounts can also be selected earlier, for example for suspicious behavior, financial services ads, or brand-related ads. [5] Meta says it is expanding verification so that verified advertisers drive 90% of its ad revenue by the end of 2026, up from 70%, concentrating on the highest-risk categories while leaving low-risk businesses, like your local ice cream shop, in the remaining 10%. [3]

Europe is pushing in the same direction from the regulator’s side. In September 2025 the European Commission used the Digital Services Act to ask Bing and Google Search how they handle links and ads leading to fraudulent websites, and asked app stores and Booking.com how they verify the identity of the businesses using their services. [6]

The cost of all this falls on accounts that were never the problem. Google said as much in November 2025: legitimate advertisers sometimes get suspended, either because Google got it wrong or because they broke a policy by accident, and it had reduced incorrect account suspensions by over 80%, with 99% of appeals now resolved within 24 hours. [7] An 80% reduction is a real improvement, and it also tells you the starting point was large enough to need one.

What to do before anyone asks

• Make your legal entity, billing profile, and advertiser name match everywhere you buy media, before a verification request asks you to prove that they do.
• Keep incorporation documents, an authorized representative’s identification, and any sector licenses where the person who handles verification can reach them within a day.
• If you advertise in financial services or run brand-related ads, expect to be selected early, because Google names both as reasons. [5]
• Search the platforms’ public ad libraries for your own brand name, and keep a record of every impersonation you report.
• If your brand is being impersonated, the FTC is asking for exactly that evidence. The comment window opens when the notice is published. [1]

The rule, if one comes, is a long way off. The verification queue is already forming, and it moves faster for the accounts whose paperwork is in order.

Sources

1. Federal Trade Commission · FTC Seeks Public Comment on Whether to Update Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses to Address Platforms’ Role in Promoting Impersonation ScamsSeptember 24, 2026. The questions, the possible measures, the 2025 complaint and loss figures, and the comment deadline.
2. Meta · Meta Takes Action on 3.7 Million Accounts, Pages and Content In Partnership With Singapore Police ForceSeptember 23, 2026. The 65 million scam ads removed so far in 2026, 94% before any report.
3. Meta · Fighting Scammers and Protecting People With New Technology and PartnershipsMarch 11, 2026. The 2025 figures and the verification target of 90% of ad revenue by the end of 2026.
4. Google · Google’s 2025 Ads Safety ReportApril 16, 2026. Ads blocked, accounts suspended, and the scam-related share.
5. Google Advertising Policies Help · About advertiser verificationAll advertisers will eventually be required to verify, and the reasons an account may be selected earlier.
6. European Commission · Commission requests information under Digital Services Act from Apple, Booking.com, Google and Microsoft on financial scamsSeptember 23, 2025. The questions on fraudulent ads and on verifying business identity.
7. Google · Google Ads improves accuracy of account suspensionsNovember 13, 2025. Incorrect suspensions down by over 80%, and 99% of appeals resolved within 24 hours.

MS

Editor-in-chief

Mikołaj Salecki

Writes about media, tech, and AI business for people who actually run digital. Former agency lead. Skeptic of frameworks that read better than they perform.

LinkedIn ↗Facebook ↗salecki.digital ↗

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