What Is a Scam Ad Impersonating Your Company?
An impersonation scam ad is a paid ad that uses a real company's name, logo or look to send people to a fake site or contact, where they are asked for money or personal details.
It may appear as a sponsored search result above your real site, a social ad promising a giveaway or refund in your name, or a fake support number. The harm falls on your customers first and on your reputation next, because victims tend to blame the company whose name was used. Platforms treat these ads under two sets of rules: their ad policies (deception, scams, misrepresentation), which anyone can report, and intellectual-property rules (trademark, copyright), which only the rights holder can invoke. A complete response uses both, then reports the destination site and the fraud itself. Whether platforms should carry legal liability for these ads is a separate question the FTC opened on 1 October 2026; see whether a platform can be liable for a scam ad impersonating you.
How to Report a Scam Ad at a Glance
| Step | Action | Expected result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Capture the ad, landing page and advertiser details | A dated evidence file you can attach or paste into every report |
| 2 | Report the ad on Google | A confirmation email; review by Google's Trust & Safety team |
| 3 | File a Google trademark complaint if your mark is in the ad | A complaint against the advertiser's URL |
| 4 | Report on Facebook and Instagram, and file Meta's impersonation or trademark form | Reports logged with Meta |
| 5 | Report on Microsoft Advertising | An escalation through Microsoft's ad-quality or IP form |
| 6 | Report on X, TikTok and LinkedIn | In-app reports plus impersonation or trademark forms |
| 7 | Report the landing page as phishing | The URL submitted to browser safety lists |
| 8 | File with the FTC and IC3 | Reports in Consumer Sentinel and with the FBI |
| 9 | Warn customers through channels you control | A public notice naming your real domains and contact methods |
Time: two to four hours for a first incident across several platforms (our estimate). Tools: a browser, screenshot software, your trademark registration details, accounts on the platforms involved. Cost: none to file. Skill level: beginner; trademark forms are easier with your lawyer's help.
What You Need Before Starting
- Your trademark registration numbers and the countries they cover, if you have them. Several forms ask for them, and Google accepts trademark complaints only where you have “demonstrated trademark rights”.
- Authority to act for the company, or a written authorization if an agency or law firm will file.
- A list of your genuine domains, social accounts, ad accounts and support numbers, so you can show what is real.
- A device you are willing to use to view the scam landing page, or a decision not to open it at all (see What Not to Do).
- A named person who owns follow-up with each platform.
Step 1: Capture the Ad, Landing Page and Advertiser Details
Screenshot the ad and record its details before reporting it, because a reported ad may disappear and take the evidence with it. Every later form asks for some of this, and the FTC notes that law enforcement may ask for your documents later.
- A full-screen screenshot of the ad showing the platform, the date and time, and the search term or page where it appeared.
- The advertiser name shown in the ad's disclosure. On Google, select More or Info on the ad, then “About this advertiser” (About advertiser verification).
- The ad's destination URL and the final landing page URL, copied as text.
- Any ad library or transparency record. Google says its Ads Transparency Center lets you search by advertiser name or website name and filter by serving region and date.
- Customer complaints, emails or call logs that mention the ad, with personal details redacted.
Expected result: one dated folder per incident. How to verify: someone who has never seen the ad could identify it from your file. Common mistake: saving only a cropped image of the ad text, which proves nothing about where or when it ran.
Step 2: Report the Ad on Google
Select More or Info on the ad, choose “Report ad”, pick a reason and complete the form. Google's Report an ad help gives these steps for ads on Google services; for ads on partner sites and apps it says to select AdChoices, then “Why this ad?”, then “Report ad”. Google adds that if you think an ad is phishing, “you can provide the name of the site that the ad is impersonating”, and that pre-filled fields should not be edited. If you are not signed in, you will need to enter an email address.
You can also start from Google's Report an ad or shopping listing form, which asks whether the ad “violates Google policies (e.g. scam/phishing, offensive, or dangerous content)” or “should be removed because of a legal violation (e.g. copyright infringement, trademark or counterfeit violations)”. Choose the first for the scam; Step 3 covers the second.
Why Google should act: its Misrepresentation policy lists “Impersonating other brands or businesses in your ads or on your website to hide your identity or imply connections or qualifications” under Unacceptable business practices, which Google calls egregious. Expected result: Google says you will get an email confirming receipt and that the ad will be reviewed by its Trust & Safety team. How to verify: keep the confirmation email. Common mistake: expecting reporting to hide the ad. Google says “Reporting an ad doesn't block that ad.”
Step 3: File a Google Trademark Complaint if Your Mark Is in the Ad
Submit a trademark complaint through Google's Report Content On Google tool if the ad text uses your trademark. This is the rights-holder route, and it can restrict the advertiser's use of the mark beyond the single ad.
Conditions from Google's Trademarks policy: the trademark “must be used in the ad, not only on the ad's landing page”; Google will not restrict trademarks used only as keywords; and it “will only accept complaints against specific advertisers identified on the basis of their URL(s) within the countries and industries in which trademark owners have demonstrated trademark rights.” Google says it will restrict “ads that use the trademark in a confusing, deceptive, or misleading way” and that restrictions are generally applied to ads using the same second-level domain in their final URL.
Expected result: a filed complaint naming the advertiser's URL. How to verify: keep the submission confirmation. Common mistake: filing a trademark complaint about a mark that appears only on the landing page; under Google's criteria that falls outside the policy, so report the page under Step 7 instead.
Step 4: Report on Facebook and Instagram, Then File Meta's Forms
Report the ad itself from its menu, then file the form that matches what is being copied. Meta's help on How can I give feedback about the ads I see on Facebook? says ads that violate its advertising policies can be reported, and that it uses “automated tools, and in some cases manual review” to enforce them.
- Fake Page or profile behind the ad. Meta's steps in Report a Facebook profile or Page pretending to be you or someone else: go to the Page, click Options below the cover photo, select “Report Page” and follow the prompts. Meta says you can report impersonating profiles or Pages “even if you don't have a Facebook account”, using its contact form.
- Your trademark in the ad. Meta's Trademark help points to its trademark report form, and lists reporting an advertisement for intellectual property infringement as a topic.
- Repeated abuse. The same help page links to Meta's About Brand Rights Protection tool for rights holders. We could not load that Business Help article's text on October 7, 2026, so check eligibility and access there rather than relying on us.
Meta says it uses AI to detect brand impersonation and content that sends people to webpages “designed to mimic legitimate ones”, and that it removed “over 159 million scam ads” in 2025 (Meta, March 2026). Expected result: each report submitted, with a screenshot of any confirmation Meta shows. How to verify: recheck the ad and Page after a few days. Common mistake: reporting only the ad and leaving the Page that runs it.
Step 5: Report on Microsoft Advertising
Submit the ad through Microsoft's Low Quality Ad Submission and Escalation form. Microsoft's Introduction to Microsoft Advertising Network Policies page says: “To report an ad that appears to violate policy, please submit an escalation through one of these forms: Low Quality Ad Submission and Escalation or Intellectual Property Concern Form.” Microsoft says its policies apply across the Microsoft Advertising Network, including the Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network, and its Disallowed Content policies include “Deceptive Products and Services” and “Malware, Malicious and Unwanted Software, and Phishing”.
Trademark complaints: Microsoft's Intellectual Property Policies say it “expects trademark owners to engage directly with advertisers” and that if concerns remain unresolved, the owner “may submit a complaint” using the Intellectual Property Concern Form. A scammer will not answer, so record that you tried or why you could not, and file. The same page says “certain trademarks or terms that are susceptible to abuse, impersonation, or user deception may be restricted or blocked.”
Expected result: an escalation logged with Microsoft. How to verify: keep the form confirmation and recheck Bing results for your name. Common mistake: using the IP form for a pure scam with no trademark in the ad; use the ad-quality form.
Step 6: Report on X, TikTok and LinkedIn
Use each platform's in-app report on the ad, then its impersonation or trademark form.
- X. X blocks automated reading of these pages, so this paragraph relies on Internet Archive copies dated September 6, 2026 (authenticity policy), June 22, 2026 (trademark policy) and December 27, 2025 (ads policy); current wording may differ. X's authenticity policy says you can report inauthentic accounts, behaviours and content through its “dedicated in-app reporting flow”, bans scam tactics “to obtain money, property, or private information”, and says “If you believe an account is posing as you or your brand” you can use its impersonation form. Its trademark policy says X “only investigates requests that are submitted by the trademark holder or their authorized representative” via its trademark form, and that it may give the account holder your name. X's ads policy on Deceptive & Fraudulent Content prohibits “Tricking users into sending money or sharing personal information without a tangible product or service.”
- TikTok. TikTok's Report a post steps: in the app, tap the Share button or press and hold the post, tap Report, select a reason and tap Submit. For a fake account, its Report an impersonation account help offers in-app reporting (Report, then Report account, then “Pretending to Be Someone”) and separate web forms for accounts in and outside the US. For trademarks, TikTok's Intellectual Property Policy points to its Trademark Infringement Report form and encourages contacting the user first. TikTok's “How to Report” list had no separate article on ads when we checked on October 7, 2026.
- LinkedIn. LinkedIn's steps in Recognize and report spam, inappropriate, and abusive content: click the More icon on the post, click “Report this post”, choose a reason and click Submit. The LinkedIn Advertising Policies say ads must not “imply you or your product are affiliated with or endorsed by others without their permission”, and that trademark owners can send concerns through LinkedIn's trademark concern form.
Expected result: a report and, where your mark is used, a trademark filing on each platform. How to verify: keep confirmations; recheck the account after a few days. Common mistake: filing a trademark form as an outside agency without written authorization; X, for one, accepts only the holder or an authorized representative.
Step 7: Report the Landing Page as Phishing
Submit the scam site's URL to Google Safe Browsing (“Report a Page to Google Safe Browsing”) and to Microsoft's Report an unsafe site page. Removing an ad leaves the site it pointed to online; browser safety lists are a separate route to warning people who reach it by another link.
Why it matters: scammers often run the same site behind several ads and text messages. Expected result: a submission confirmation from each service. How to verify: we do not know how quickly either service acts, and neither page we read gives a timescale; recheck the URL in a browser later. Microsoft says signing in helps it handle the submission and that corporate account holders can report several URLs at once. Common mistake: reporting only the ad URL (often a tracking redirect) and not the final page.
Step 8: File With the FTC and IC3
File a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, for cyber-enabled fraud in the US, at the FBI's IC3.gov. Platform reports deal with the ad; these deal with the fraud.
- FTC. The ReportFraud FAQ says to “Report anything you think may be a fraud, scam, or bad business practice”, “even if you didn't lose money”, and that you can report on behalf of someone else. It cannot take uploads: “paste the text of your documents into the Comments field” and keep the originals for law enforcement. Reports go into the Consumer Sentinel database, which the FTC makes available to “over 2,000 law enforcement partners”; the FTC says it cannot respond to each report or resolve them individually.
- IC3. The FBI describes IC3 as “the central hub for reporting cyber-enabled crime” and tells people to file “even if you are unsure of whether your complaint qualifies.” It says it cannot respond to every complaint, and warns that scammers impersonate IC3 itself; IC3 “will never directly contact you for information or money.”
- Customers who lost money should file their own reports; the FTC also suggests a state attorney general or local consumer protection agency.
Losses reported to the FTC, US dollars, calendar years 2024 and 2025
Source: Federal Trade Commission, FTC data show people reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, press release, June 15, 2026.
The FTC gives the 2025 business figure only as “nearly $1 billion” and has not published the exact amount in this release; its bar is drawn at $1 billion, so it slightly overstates the true figure. Bank impersonators had the highest reported losses among business impersonators. Total imposter-scam losses in 2025 were $3.5 billion.
Expected result: report confirmations from both. How to verify: save the confirmation pages. Common mistake: expecting the FTC to get the ad removed; it uses reports to investigate and bring cases, not to act for individual reporters. The FTC is separately asking until 30 November 2026 what complaints from impersonated businesses should oblige platforms to act, which our explainer on the FTC's proposal covers.
Step 9: Warn Customers Through Channels You Control
Publish a short notice on your website and official social accounts naming your genuine domains, phone numbers and accounts, saying how you do and do not contact customers, and telling people where to report a fake. This is the only step entirely in your control, and it works whether or not a platform acts.
- State plainly what you never do (for example, ask for payment by gift card, or offer refunds through social messages), and only list what is true for your company.
- Link to the FTC and IC3 for customers who lost money.
- Brief your support team with the same wording, and log every customer report as new evidence for Step 1.
- Watch for new copies: an alert on your brand name together with words such as “refund” or “support” can surface fresh fakes; our Google Alerts guide covers the setup. Making the real company easy to find in search also helps; see owning page one when someone searches your name.
- Tighten internal call-back and payment checks too: impersonation now targets staff as well as customers, as in how a cloned voice got a bank to wire €95 million.
Expected result: a public, dated notice. How to verify: search your company name with “scam” and check that your notice can be found. Common mistake: repeating the scammer's link or phone number in the warning, which spreads it further; describe the fake and point to the real channels instead.
How to Verify It Worked
- Reports filed: a confirmation email or on-screen reference for each platform report, form, FTC report and IC3 complaint, saved in the incident folder.
- Ad gone: the ad no longer appears for the same search or placement. On Google, the Ads Transparency Center lets you search by advertiser or website to see what ads are still recorded.
- Page and account gone: the impersonating Page, profile or account no longer loads, or shows an enforcement notice.
- Site flagged: the landing page shows a browser warning, or is offline.
- Customers informed: the notice is live and your support team is using it.
Platforms do not publish response times in the pages we read, so set your own recheck dates (we suggest 48 hours and one week) and escalate with your evidence file if nothing changes.
How to Choose a Reporting Route
| Situation | Recommended route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ad sends people to a fake copy of your site | Platform report (scam/phishing) plus Safe Browsing and Microsoft unsafe-site reports | Covers the ad and the destination separately |
| Your registered trademark appears in the ad text | Platform trademark form as well as the report button | Rights-holder complaints can restrict the advertiser beyond one ad |
| Your mark appears only on the landing page (Google) | Ad report and phishing report, not a trademark complaint | Google's criteria require the mark in the ad |
| A fake Page or account runs the ads | Impersonation form for that platform | Removes the source, not just one ad |
| Customers have lost money | FTC and IC3, and encourage customers to file their own | Puts the fraud in front of law enforcement |
| Your company has no registered trademark | Ad reports, impersonation forms, FTC and IC3 | Policy and fraud reports do not depend on registration |
| An agency or law firm files for you | Rights-holder forms with written authorization | X and others accept only the holder or an authorized representative |
Common Problems and Fixes
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The ad vanished before you saved it | Ads rotate by time, place and user | Search the advertiser or website in Google's Ads Transparency Center; ask customers for screenshots |
| Google rejects the trademark complaint | Mark only on the landing page, or used only as a keyword, or no rights shown in that country | Report the ad and the landing page instead; check Google's criteria |
| The same scam returns under a new name | New advertiser account or domain | Report each new ad; cite earlier report references; consider Meta's Brand Rights Protection |
| Microsoft asks you to contact the advertiser | Its trademark process expects direct contact first | Record that the advertiser is anonymous or unreachable and file the IP Concern Form |
| Platform says the ad does not violate policy | Report filed under the wrong reason | Refile as scam, phishing or impersonation with the evidence file |
| No reply from the FTC or IC3 | Neither replies to every report | Expected; keep confirmations and file updates as new evidence appears |
| Customers contact the scammer's number | Fake number ranks or is advertised | Publish your real numbers in Step 9; report the ad listing the number |
What Not to Do
- Do not click the scam ad repeatedly from a work device. Consequence: you risk malware or phishing on a company machine. Correction: copy URLs as text; if you must view the page, use an isolated device.
- Do not engage the scammer. Consequence: you reveal that you are watching and may expose staff details. Correction: report and document instead.
- Do not report only once, on one platform. Consequence: the scam moves to another ad, account or network. Correction: report every layer in Steps 2 to 8 and recheck.
- Do not file intellectual-property forms you are not entitled to file. Consequence: TikTok warns that misleading or fraudulent reports may lead to liability. Correction: file as the rights holder or with written authorization.
- Do not stay silent with customers. Consequence: they learn about the scam from losses. Correction: publish the Step 9 notice the same day.
- Do not promise customers their money back on a platform's behalf. Consequence: expectations you cannot meet. Correction: point them to the FTC and IC3 and their bank or card issuer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I report a scam ad if I do not have a registered trademark?
Yes. The report button on each platform, impersonation forms and reports to the FTC and IC3 do not depend on trademark registration. Trademark complaint forms are the route that usually needs proof of rights; Google, for example, accepts complaints only where the owner has demonstrated trademark rights.
Does reporting an ad on Google remove it?
Not by itself. Google says reporting an ad does not block it; the report goes to its Trust & Safety team, which checks it against Google's policies and acts if it finds a violation. Google treats impersonating other businesses as an egregious violation that leads to account suspension.
Can a marketing agency report impersonation ads for a client?
Anyone can use the report buttons. For trademark forms, platforms set conditions: X only investigates requests from the trademark holder or an authorized representative, so an agency should have written authorization from the client.
Should my company report a scam ad to the FTC if no customer lost money?
Yes. The FTC says to report anything you think may be a fraud, scam or bad business practice, even if you did not lose money. Reports go into its Consumer Sentinel database, which is available to law enforcement.
Will the FTC or IC3 get back to me?
Probably not individually. The FTC says it cannot respond to each report or resolve reports for individuals, and IC3 says it cannot respond directly to every submission. Both use reports for investigations and trend data.
Why does Microsoft ask me to contact the advertiser before filing a trademark complaint?
Microsoft's Intellectual Property Policies say it expects trademark owners to engage directly with advertisers and to use the Intellectual Property Concern Form if concerns remain unresolved. For a scam ad, use the Low Quality Ad Submission and Escalation form as well.
What evidence should I keep for a scam ad?
A full screenshot of the ad with the date, time and where it appeared; the advertiser name from the ad disclosure; the destination and landing page URLs as text; any transparency or ad library record; customer complaints; and every report confirmation.
Does Google accept trademark complaints about a scam landing page?
Not under its ads Trademarks policy, which requires the trademark to be used in the ad itself, not only on the landing page. Report the ad as a scam or phishing and report the page to Google Safe Browsing.
How do I warn customers without spreading the scam?
Publish a notice on your own website and official accounts that lists your genuine domains, phone numbers and accounts and how you do and do not contact customers. Describe the fake without repeating its link or number.
Sources and Methodology
This guide is built from each platform's and agency's own help pages and policies, read on October 7, 2026. Pages that load with JavaScript (Microsoft Advertising help, TikTok support, ReportFraud.ftc.gov and IC3) were read in a browser. Several pages could not be read directly: Meta's help pages were read through a fetching tool that returns summaries, so we quote only text that tool returned and describe Meta's Brand Rights Protection only by its title; X's help and ads policy pages blocked automated access, so they were read from Internet Archive copies (X authenticity policy, September 6, 2026; trademark policy, June 22, 2026; ads policy, December 27, 2025), and current wording may differ. We did not file any report, test any form or measure how quickly platforms respond. Time estimates and recheck intervals are ours. Interface labels change often; where documentation did not confirm a label, we describe the control instead.
- official Google My Ad Center Help, Report an ad. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Google Ads Help, Report an ad or shopping listing. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Google Advertising Policies Help, Misrepresentation. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Google Advertising Policies Help, Trademarks. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Google Legal Help, Report Content On Google. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Google My Ad Center Help, About advertiser verification. About this advertiser; Ads Transparency Center. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Google, Report a Page to Google Safe Browsing. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Facebook Help Center, Report a Facebook profile or Page pretending to be you or someone else. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Facebook Help Center, Trademark. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Facebook Help Center, How can I give feedback about the ads I see on Facebook?. Read October 7, 2026.
- company Meta Newsroom, Fighting scammers and protecting people with new technology and partnerships, March 2026. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Microsoft Advertising Help, Introduction to Microsoft Advertising Network Policies, and Intellectual Property Policies (last updated June 10, 2026). Read October 7, 2026.
- official Microsoft Security Intelligence, Report an unsafe site. Read October 7, 2026.
- official X Help Center, Authenticity and Trademark policy; X Business, Deceptive & Fraudulent Content. Read from Internet Archive copies on October 7, 2026.
- official TikTok Support, Report a post and Report an impersonation account; TikTok, Intellectual Property Policy. Read October 7, 2026.
- official LinkedIn Help, Recognize and report spam, inappropriate, and abusive content; LinkedIn, Advertising Policies. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Federal Trade Commission, ReportFraud.ftc.gov FAQ. Read October 7, 2026.
- official FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, IC3.gov home page. Read October 7, 2026.
- official Federal Trade Commission, FTC data show people reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, press release, June 15, 2026. Read October 10, 2026.