Ofcom has published draft measures requiring major online platforms to take stronger action against fraudulent adverts, as part of its enforcement of the Online Safety Act. The regulator says more than half of UK adults have encountered potentially fraudulent ads online, and it wants firms to ban scammers, stop them creating new accounts and tackle those impersonating real businesses. The move matters because scam advertising has become widespread, and platforms that fail to comply could ultimately face fines of £18m or 10% of global turnover, whichever is greater.

Ofcom has also published its register of "categorised services", with Category 1 platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Quora, Reddit, Roblox, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, X and YouTube — facing the toughest additional duties to prevent and swiftly remove fraudulent ads. iMessage, Messenger, Threads and Wikipedia are being monitored as potential emerging Category 1 services. A public consultation runs until 2 October, though consumer group Which? warned that the timeline leaves people unprotected until 2027 at the earliest, a concern heightened by AI making scams more sophisticated.