February 17, 2026

The SCAM Act: Legislators Call for a "Know Your Advertiser" Framework

In February 2026, legislators took a shot at shifting the scam landscape.

Senators Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) introduced the Safeguarding Consumers from Advertising Misconduct (SCAM) Act, aiming to curb industrial-scale fraudulent ads on social media that have deeply contributed to $1.3 trillion in global consumer losses.

It wasn’t hard to see this legislation coming.

Over the last year, papers leaked showing that Meta projected $16 billion in 2024 revenue from ads for scams and banned goods and that its users were exposed to about 15 billion high-risk scam ads per day.

In no way should this be seen as a Meta-only problem. Online platforms are lightly regulated in how they verify commercial advertisements. Ad teams are in the business of driving growth, and are often not armed to detect and prevent nefarious businesses.

As a result, these ads are popping up on social platforms, dating sites, marketplaces and even jobs sites across the globe. A recent Global Anti Scam Alliance (GASA) study shows that 57% of adults said they experienced a scam in the past 12 months and 23% lost money. In 2024, Google blocked five billion scam ads and Microsoft purged one billion ads.

This legislation aims to prevent these ads from ever getting placed.

The New Compliance Mandate: KYB + IDV

The SCAM Act doesn’t just ask for better moderation of ads, it mandates a bank-level Know Your Business, or Know Your Advertiser framework. To comply, online platforms must now:

• Validate the Business Entity (KYB): Verify the legal existence, active registration status, and location of every business advertiser across the globe.
• Verify the Beneficial Owner: Bridge the gap between a corporate entity and the individuals behind it, both verifying ownership and that the individuals are real.
• Neutralize Synthetic Fraud: Specifically detect and block synthetic identities that are often used to tether fake businesses to ad accounts.
• Avoid Repeat Fraud: Tap into the largest fraud consortium of individual and business entities reported by 3,000+ financial institutions and government agencies.

Online Platforms Need ‘Grown-Up’ KYB Strategies

Just like with consumer verification solutions, ad teams need entity and identity verification strategies that are radically accurate without causing unnecessary friction or slowing growth.

The missing link for online platforms is actually addressed by the SCAM Act’s requirements that organically links the intelligence between a business and the human behind it in real-time and globally. This is not a check-box compliance KYB. Here’s what that looks like:

• Integrated KYB & Identity: Through our RiskOS® platform, Socure provides a single API that validates the business entity while simultaneously verifying the identity of the person opening the account, as well as the linkage between the business and person.
• Synthetic Identity Leadership: Synthetic fraud is a favorite tool of modern scam syndicates. Socure’s Sigma Synthetic Fraud detects partially or fully fabricated identities by analyzing PII, proof-of-life signals, and linkages across Socure’s global identity graph, which continuously learns from transactions across a consortium of 3,000+ enterprise customers.
• Scrubbing Existing Scam Advertisers: The SCAM Act doesn’t just govern new advertisers, it creates a look-back duty for advertisers already live. The Act’s 72-hour investigation window requires shifting from reactive moderation to proactive advertiser hygiene. Socure’s Portfolio Scrub screens an entire advertiser base to identify and remove high-risk entities.

The Bottom Line

While legislation moves slowly and often stalls, the mounting pressure of these proposed bills makes it clear: a regulation-free landscape is no longer a reality.

It’s time to tackle proactive investment in business and identity verification with a strategy that blocks scams without prohibiting growth.

Posted by

Rivka Gewirtz Little

Rivka Gewirtz Little is a financial crime and payments solution expert with nearly two decades of fintech market experience. Before re-joining Socure as the Chief of Staff to the CEO, she led Global Fraud Strategy in the treasury of Goldman Sachs. Prior, she served as the SVP of Marketing for Socure during the largest growth phase in company history. Earlier, Rivka was an industry analyst responsible for the Global Payment Strategies practice at IDC Financial Insights. There, she focused on the intersection of payments modernization, fraud and identity. Rivka's technology coverage has been cited in publications, including The New York Times, USA Today, CNET, Vox, The Verge and a number of technology trade journals.