Bank Leumi sues Meta for $9 million over Facebook and Instagram scams
The bank claims Meta allows fraudulent advertisements impersonating Leumi to reach users despite obvious warning signs, and says customers lost $200,000 in the first two weeks of August alone.
Bank Leumi filed a NIS 26.6 million ($9.0 million) lawsuit in the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday against technology giant Meta, claiming that the company enables the systematic distribution of sponsored fraudulent advertisements impersonating the bank on Facebook and Instagram. According to the lawsuit, Meta approves and promotes fraudulent ads in exchange for payment while ignoring warning signs and failing to implement adequate filtering and control mechanisms before the content goes live.
According to the bank, the sponsored ads use its name and trademarks without authorization and offer fake benefits, including gift certificates and car raffles, to lure users into providing login details and verification codes. The information is then allegedly used by attackers to gain access to bank accounts and withdraw funds.
The lawsuit claims that the signs of fraud in the advertisements were often prominent, including misleading language, links to corrupted or suspicious URLs, and publication from anonymous accounts that were not among the bank's verified accounts.
Bank Leumi is seeking NIS 3.9 million ($1.32 million) in damages for funds it refunded to customers who were harmed, in accordance with its regulatory obligations; NIS 17.7 million ($6.0 million) for handling, monitoring and investigating the fraudulent activity, as well as the technological and operational resources allocated to combating it; and NIS 5 million ($1.69 million) for damage to the bank's reputation.
The bank points to what it describes as a sharp worsening of the phenomenon. In July, it identified 243 cases of fraudulent advertising, more than the total number recorded during the first half of 2026. During the first two weeks of August alone, customers suffered NIS 590,000 ($200,000) in losses, while the bank says it prevented an additional NIS 9.2 million ($3.12 million) in potential damage.
In addition to financial compensation, the lawsuit seeks permanent injunctions against Meta. Among the measures demanded by the bank are requiring Meta to verify the identity of every advertiser before allowing advertisements to be published; imposing stricter requirements on financial advertisements; displaying clear warnings on ads published by unverified accounts; giving Bank Leumi access to advertisements bearing its name before they are published; and providing the bank with advertisers' identifying information so that it can pursue enforcement proceedings.
Bank Leumi claims that it has repeatedly contacted Meta about fraudulent advertisements in the past, but that the company's responses were largely ad hoc and delayed, resulting in only a small number of the reported advertisements being removed.
