As per a report by the Federal Trade Commission, an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking has been issued seeking public comment on whether ad-optimisation tools offered by search engines, social media platforms and other digital marketplaces are helping scammers impersonate legitimate businesses and government agencies through online ads. The agency cited nearly $3.5 billion in reported consumer losses to impersonation fraud last year, arguing the true cost is likely far higher, and that platforms profit from optimising ad delivery for third parties without regard to whether those advertisers are legitimate.

The FTC is asking commenters to address the financial incentives behind these ad-optimisation tools, how prevalent the underlying practices are, and whether they amount to unfair or deceptive conduct that the agency should address by amending its existing impersonation rule, writing a new rule, or through non-regulatory measures instead.