In a major push to strengthen digital trust and meet increasing demands from financial institutions and regulators, Google has harnessed advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to combat the proliferation of scam ads across its platforms. The tech giant reported that in 2024 alone, it removed nearly half a billion fraudulent ads, reinforcing its commitment to regulatory compliance and online consumer protection.

As part of its aggressive compliance management strategy, Google suspended 39.2 million advertiser accounts in the United States—a more than threefold increase from the previous year. The surge reflects intensified efforts to enhance compliance monitoring tools and address growing concerns from the banking sector and government bodies over the rise of digital fraud.

The company attributed much of its success to over 50 major upgrades in its Large Language Models (LLMs) aimed at proactively identifying and stopping malicious actors. These improvements enabled Google to accelerate fraud detection by flagging risk signals—such as fake payment credentials—during the advertiser account creation process. By deploying compliance automation and real-time threat detection, billions of policy-violating ads were prevented from reaching users, without compromising the visibility of legitimate businesses.

In response to the evolving threat landscape, Google also refined its regulatory risk management approach by adapting to scams involving AI-generated deepfake impersonations of public figures. Such impersonations have become increasingly common tools in financial crime and regulatory enforcement challenges.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, scams impersonating government and business officials cost U.S. consumers $2.95 billion in 2024. In a bid to mitigate these threats, Google formed a dedicated task force of over 100 experts to enhance its Misrepresentation policy, leading to the permanent suspension of over 700,000 fraudulent advertiser accounts. This strategic move resulted in a 90% reduction in reported impersonation scam ads, marking a milestone in fraud prevention efforts.

Despite these gains, concerns remain about the dominant role of Big Tech platforms—including Google and Meta—in enabling scam proliferation. Regulatory bodies and fintech firms continue to urge social media companies to assume greater regulatory responsibility, including proposals for shared reimbursement models for scam victims whose losses originate from content on these platforms.

As global regulators intensify calls for stronger regulatory frameworks and compliance accountability, tech platforms like Google are under pressure to remain at the forefront of RegTech innovations. Their ability to deploy scalable compliance software, improve regulatory change management, and collaborate with the financial ecosystem will be crucial in shaping a safer digital advertising environment.