From the OG ice bucket challenge 100 years ago to the bugging dance challenge of 2026, social media is nothing without its trends. But while most things that have their fleeting moment on the timeline are harmless (except maybe the Tide Pod challenge of 2018 A.D.), one of last year’s biggest social media trends was anything but: the FTC reported that in 2025, shopping scams were the most prevalent type of grift on social media.
We can’t find you the best deals on TikTok Shop or let you know which bougie-looking Instagram Shop self-care item is actually a dropshipped dupe, but we can help you dodge those scam ads – these red flags will stop your doomscrolling quicker than a “low battery” notification.
Scam Ads on Your Feed
The key social media shopping scam in 2025 was misleading or fake ads, and these continue to be a major problem well into 2026. As the FTC reminds us, these scam ads are so endemic largely because social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram don’t thoroughly vet the ads themselves or the advertisers behind them. Basically, anyone at all can pay to place ads right on your feed, and that includes scammers.
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The FTC reports that scam ad victims lost over $95 million as a result of misleading social media ads alone last year, with 30% of all money lost to scams happening on social media platforms. Total losses reached $2.1 billion that year – that’s eight times more than in 2020, and far more losses compared to scams played out via any other form of contact. Even worse? Most scam victims don’t report the incident, so these figures don’t even come close to painting the full picture.
How Scam Ads Work
For the most part, scams based on fake ads play out in a pretty simple fashion: you see an alluring ad for a product on your feed, you use your credit or debit card to buy that product, but you receive nothing in the mail. Or, in some cases, you get an off-brand, counterfeit, or noticeably low-quality product that doesn’t resemble the scam ads much at all. Meanwhile, the scammer behind the fake ads receives your money, not to mention the banking information you used in the transaction.
That last part turns social media scam ads into a phishing scheme, too. These are the kinds of scams in which criminals impersonate legitimate organizations or businesses in order to get their hands on your financial and other sensitive information, including your login info for the platform you’re using. That means that once they have your valuable sensitive information, you might have even more money taken from you than what you initially paid for the faux product. Hence those huge scam stats we mentioned above.
The very nature of social media platforms — which are largely built to take advantage of your browsing habits — unfortunately makes them deeply well suited for these sorts of phishing scams.
As the FTC puts it, “Social media can be a great way to connect, but can also make a scammer’s job easier. They might hack into your account to scam your friends or even create entirely fake profiles. Or they might use what you post to figure out how to target you. And by buying ads, they get the same tools real businesses use to target you by age, interests, or shopping habits.”
Fake Ads: What To Look For
The bad news: social media scam ads have become incredibly common. The good news: because social media scam ads are so common, we have a pretty good idea of how to identify them. Before you hit the “buy” button on a fake ad, vet it for red flags like these:
- A website URL that doesn’t match the brand
- Deals that seem too good to be true. That’s because they probably are.
- Ads for on-brand products that seem distinctly off-brand (i.e., a legitimate Switch 2 ad from Nintendo probably isn’t going to contain obvious spelling errors).
- AI-generated product images, or even fully AI-generated ads (some of which even feature convincing “human” influencers, spokespersons, or testimonials).
- Repetitious, simplistic testimonials in the comments from weird usernames like “adeline49975.” If you see a bunch of these — especially from brand-new accounts or those with almost no activity — there’s a good chance those “reviews” are bots.
- Anyone asking you to pay using gift cards or crypto. Don’t do it. Scammers want these payment methods because they’re hard to trace.
- Direct, unsolicited contact from a seller. In some cases, this is a scammer using your algorithmic browsing data to tempt you with fake ads for a product you might be likely to purchase.
- Businesses you’re unfamiliar with. Now, this isn’t always a red flag — millions of real businesses sell on social shopping platforms — but if you’re dealing with a new company, or even an ad claiming to be a company you’re familiar with, do your homework. Peep around their full profile for all these aforementioned red flags before you put anything in your cart.
Google their business name (and add “scam” to that business name, too, if your scammer sense is pinging). Look them up on the Better Business Bureau, or even the next best thing — which is, of course, Reddit.
What to Do in the Ad-fermath
Look, whether it’s an AI video of animals jumping on a trampoline on a poorly labeled parody post, we’ve all fallen for a lie or two (or twenty, or six hundred) on social media. If that lie hits your wallet in the form of a scam ad, here’s what to do:
- If you know you got tricked by a social media scam ad and have already given over your banking info, contact your bank immediately to dispute the charge. Request a refund for the illicit transaction (not a guarantee, but worth the ask, especially if it’s not something you’ve done often and you’re a customer in good standing) and place a permanent block on the source that took your money.
- Likewise, you may need to request a freeze or shutdown of your current debit, credit card, or even checking account. This will ensure you start fresh with new cards and a new account number that the scammers don’t have knowledge of.
- Report any scam ads you spot to their respective social media platforms, and block the accounts associated with them.
- If you lose money to a fake ad, do everyone else a favor and report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Think of scam ads on social media like a bad Instagram beauty filter; they might look good when you’re casually scrolling by, but they fall apart upon a closer look. With a little extra scrutiny between the doomscrolling, you can focus on scoring those good gets rather than falling victim to glossy grifts.
As a freelance writer, small business owner, and consultant with more than a decade of experience, Dan has been fortunate enough to collaborate with leading brands including Microsoft, Fortune, Verizon, Discover, Office Depot, The Motley Fool, and more. He currently resides in Dallas, TX.