The Federal Trade Commission said on September 24, 2026, that it had voted 2-0 to submit to the Federal Register an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on whether to update its Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses to cover platform ad-optimization practices that may be furthering impersonation scams. The notice asks how far the ad-optimization tools of social media, search engines, and other digital marketplace platforms help scammers impersonate legitimate businesses and government agencies.
It is the earliest stage of an FTC rulemaking. The notice contains no rule text and places no new obligation on any platform. Comments will be due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, which as of September 26 had neither published the notice nor listed it for public inspection. The Commission asks whether to amend the rule, write a separate one, or rely on non-regulatory measures.
Ad tools, incentives, and safeguards under review
The ANPRM names Google.com, Facebook.com, Amazon.com, the Apple App Store, and LinkedIn.com as examples of platforms. It asks what financial incentives drive their ad-optimization tools, how each tool shapes an ad’s content and delivery, and what platforms do today to keep deceptive advertisers away. It also asks whether these practices are unfair or deceptive under the FTC Act, and whether they are prevalent, the condition the law sets before the Commission can propose a rule.
Measures the Commission could require, or turn into a safe harbor under which compliance could give platforms a defense to liability, include:
- Evaluating ads before posting and denying optimization services to impersonation advertisers
- Detecting suspected impersonation ads and giving consumers a conspicuous reporting tool
- Investigating suspected ads, removing confirmed ones, and disciplining the advertiser
Bank trade group wants platforms held more accountable
Many impersonation scams end with the victim sending money. The FTC said in June that business impersonators drew nearly $1 billion in reported 2025 losses, with bank impersonators at the top, and that some of the costliest scams “start with a fake security alert, often from a bank.” The ANPRM cites industry sources saying scammers use search ads that pose as banks to reach the top of sponsored results.
The Bank Policy Institute, which represents universal, regional, and major foreign banks in the US, backed the notice the same day. “We support the FTC’s proposal today to protect consumers from impersonation scams,” it said. “The framework would demand greater accountability from platforms where these scams spread and find new victims.” In a survey BPI published in July, member banks reported a 150% rise from 2024 to 2025 in the average number of bank impersonation scams identified per bank.
The notice points to payments as an example of industry cooperation. It cites MATCH, the database maintained by Mastercard that banks and payment processors use to identify high-risk merchants, and asks what barriers keep platforms from working together against impersonation scams. Its list of consumer harms includes time spent initiating chargebacks.
A narrower attempt after the 2024 retreat
The rule, finalized in March 2024, bans impersonating government agencies and businesses. The FTC had also proposed covering anyone supplying goods or services with knowledge or reason to know they would be used for impersonation. On December 26, 2024, it said it “has decided not to proceed with the SNPRM’s proposed means and instrumentalities provision at this time.” Some commenters had called it overbroad. The new effort is limited to platforms’ ad-optimization practices and starts with an ANPRM.
In the first rulemaking, the December 2021 ANPRM led to a final rule in March 2024. For now, the misalignment of platform incentives is, in the FTC’s words, “not covered by the current Rule.”