Facebook advertisers must verify identities amidst surge in scam ads

All advertisers on Facebook will be required to verify their identities against government-issued records by the end of June. This comes after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) noted a 12% increase in the number of scam reports arising from advertisements on Facebook from June to December last year. 

In a statement on Monday (10 March), MHA said that it had allowed Meta to apply the enhanced verification requirement on selected advertisers during the six-month period. If the number of scams failed to drop, the ministry would require Meta to improve its requirements. 

As Meta was unable to curb the number of scam advertisements, the media giant will be required to implement verification measures over the coming months. 

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The ministry also noted that Meta’s verification requirements were restricted to paid advertisements, while police statistics on scam advertisements comprise both paid advertisements and unpaid posts. 

"Meta intends to verify the identities of all advertisers on Facebook by end-June 2025. We welcome this and will monitor the situation," said MHA. 

Additionally, MHA said it had observed a significant proportion of e-commerce scams being perpetrated on Facebook pages. Specifically, scammers would create Facebook pages under the pretext of advertising the sale of goods and services to reach out to and deceive victims. 

The ministry said that it is working with Meta to introduce the enhanced verification for Facebook pages this year, and will allow Meta to apply the requirements only to selected pages for a start. 

Similar to its approach for other Facebooks services, MHA will assess the effectiveness of Facebook pages’ measures for a period of time. "If the scam numbers do not decrease significantly, we may require stronger measures to be implemented, such as requiring Facebook to apply verification requirements to all pages," MHA added. 

Despite the notable rise in scam advertisements, MHA said the number of reported e-commerce scams on Facebook marketplace decreased by about 55% from May to November last year. Given the improvement, MHA will not mandate the verification requirement for all marketplace sellers. 

"We will continue to monitor the e-commerce scams situation on marketplace, and may require Meta to verify the identities of more sellers should the situation worsen," said the ministry. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Meta for more information. 

In December last year, Meta launched a global campaign to increase awareness of online scams during the holiday shopping season. The initiative aimed to provide users with the necessary tools and information to help them safely navigate online platforms and minimise the risk of falling victim to scams.

Meta identified several scams with assistance from open-source researchers at network analysis firm Graphika. These included deceptive holiday coupons targeting users in the US, India, and the UK, where fake coupons and gift cards are used to obtain personal information. Such scams frequently appear on platforms such as Telegram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

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