Pressure on social media to take a more active role in combatting fraud is growing as a new report from The Payments Association (TPA) demands action.
The fintech industry has for some time been calling for social media platforms to accept their role in the rise of scams and do more to prevent them.
This is in part due to current regulations requiring payments providers to be solely liable for fraud reimbursements, which the industry sees as unfair due to the extent to which social media acts a source of scams.
In its new report, TPA has called on the government to impose tougher rules on social media platforms for hosting scam adverts.
Recent research commissioned by Revolut found that companies like Meta earn hundreds of millions from hosting scam adverts every year in the UK alone, suggesting that these platforms are incentivised to be lenient on certain types of fraudulent activity.
TPA has said the burden for combating scam ads is “not fairly shared”, pointing to a “fundamental imbalance at the heart of the fraud system”.
According to the report, around two-thirds of cases of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, the most common category, start in online platforms such as social media, marketplaces and messaging services.
TPA estimated that social media platforms generated £3.8bn in revenue from scam advertising across Europe in 2025.
It also warns that relying solely on payment providers is an inefficient system.
“By the time a transaction reaches the banking system, the scam has often been in motion for days or weeks, limiting the ability of payment providers to intervene effectively,” the report said.
It has called for enforceable standards for scam prevention to be placed on digital platforms, robust advertiser verification, defined timeframes for removing fraudulent content, mandatory cross-sector intelligence sharing and greater transparency and accountability in platform oversight.
