A new analysis is raising fresh concerns about the growing number of financial scams spreading across social media platforms, with the United States emerging as one of the biggest targets for risky investment ads.
According to the findings, nearly 30% of people who lost money to a scam said the fraud began on social media. Americans reportedly lost around $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025 alone. Facebook accounted for $794 million of those losses, while WhatsApp and Instagram together made up another $659 million.
The report comes as Meta continues to face mounting scrutiny over scam-related advertising on its platforms. The company has recently been hit with lawsuits alleging it generated as much as $7 billion annually from so-called high-risk ads that showed signs of fraud.
To better understand where users are most vulnerable, Forex experts at BrokerChooser analyzed more than 1,400 active finance-related ads from the Meta Ads Library in April 2026. The study focused on 14 major global markets and evaluated ads for safety compliance, missing risk disclosures, exaggerated investment claims, and outright scam activity.
The analysis found that nearly half, or 46.78%, of finance-related Meta ads targeting users in the United States were classified as “high-risk” as of April 2026. While 53.22% of ads were labeled safe, researchers warned that almost one in every two finance ads shown to American users could still be misleading or potentially dangerous.
READ: Social media scams cost Americans $2.1 billion in 2025 (April 28, 2026)
The report said 40.34% of finance ads shown to U.S. users were considered risky, while another 6.44% were identified as outright scams.
Researchers found that many of these ads promised quick profits while minimizing or completely ignoring the risks involved. More than 85% of finance-related Meta ads in the U.S. reportedly failed to include proper risk disclaimers.
Many ads also used aggressive marketing language to attract users. Some promised to “deliver consistent annual returns exceeding 80%” with “no market dependency,” while others promoted “easy money” through a “free forex trading masterclass” claiming a “proven formula to trade profitably everyday.”
The report also pointed to a sharp rise in ads promoting AI-powered trading bots tied to forex and cryptocurrency markets. Many of these ads encouraged users to continue conversations through WhatsApp, Instagram, or Telegram instead of staying on public platforms.
Researchers warned that scammers increasingly rely on private messaging apps because they are harder to monitor and allow fraudsters to directly pressure potential victims.
The study found that disclaimer violations were widespread across nearly all countries analyzed. Belgium reportedly had the worst compliance rate, with 95.45% of financial ads missing required legal disclaimers. Italy followed at 94.20%, while Switzerland and Poland also showed extremely high levels of non-compliant advertising.
Poland recorded the highest share of outright scam finance ads at 15%, followed by the United Kingdom at 7.52%, the United States at 6.44%, and Italy at 5.80%.
When researchers combined both scam ads and risky non-compliant ads into one category, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, and Poland ranked as the most dangerous digital advertising environments for consumers searching for financial products online.
READ: Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta making a fortune through fraud (November 8, 2025)
The report also highlighted what it called the “United Kingdom polarization anomaly.” While the UK had the highest percentage of verified safe ads at 66.81%, it also had the second-highest explicit scam rate at 7.52%. Researchers said this suggests the country has a mix of highly compliant financial advertisers alongside highly aggressive scam operators.
Adam Nasli, Head Broker Analyst from BrokerChooser, warned that social media has become one of the biggest hunting grounds for financial fraudsters.
“Social media has become a fertile hunting ground for financial scammers, reaching billions of users online. Our analysis reveals that many high-risk ads rely heavily on persuasive, attention-grabbing language while avoiding clear risk disclosure.
Common red flags include phrases like ‘unlock $400K,’ ‘instant funding’ and ‘free trading,’ often paired with prompts directing users to private messaging apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp or Telegram. By moving interactions off-platform, scammers bypass moderation, avoid detection and manipulate users directly in a one-on-one setting,” he noted.