9 firms kept advertising online after an FCA warning

9 firms on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warning list kept advertising on Meta, Google or TikTok after the FCA had warned about them, an investigation by Which? published on 7 October 2026 has found.

The FCA adds a firm to its warning list when it is concerned the firm is working without the FCA's permission.

Which? checked 300 warnings that the FCA had recently published or updated. It searched for ads from those firms in the public records of ads that Meta, Google and TikTok publish. X was not included because it does not publish one for the UK.

Which? found that:

• 9 firms kept advertising on at least one platform after the FCA had added them to the warning list, some for weeks or months
• 2 ads on Meta from these 9 firms were still running when Which? checked

Which? reported both ads to Meta, but they were still running 6 days later. After Which? contacted Meta's press office, Meta removed only one of them.

Which? also says dozens of the firms it checked had advertised on at least one of the 3 platforms at some point, either before or after the FCA's warning.

One firm promoted what it claimed were investments in SpaceX on Meta from 21 May to 8 June. The FCA published a warning about it on 5 June, and the ads ran for 3 more days. They reached 5,457 people in the UK before Meta stopped the firm for not following its advertising standards.

Another firm offered temporary car, van and motorbike insurance. The FCA first warned about it in 2022, and says the firm pretends to be 2 genuine firms, one in France and one in the UK. Its ads appeared on Meta and TikTok until May, and in Google search results until at least 18 July.

The FCA told Which? that all the big social media sites and search engines now have policies that say financial services ads must be authorised by the FCA. But it is concerned the tech firms are not doing enough to enforce these policies.

Ofcom, the online safety regulator, is preparing rules on how large platforms must tackle scam ads.

The FCA told Which?:

Tech firms must do more to stop fraudulent ads at source. They don't need to wait for Ofcom's new rules to come into force and should step up now.

What it means for consumers

By law, a business must not invite or encourage people to invest unless it is authorised by the FCA, an authorised firm has approved its advert, or an exemption applies. This is set out in section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

The FCA says people who deal with a firm that is not authorised may not be able to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service or claim from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and are unlikely to get their money back.

Before paying a firm any money, people can check it is authorised on the FCA Firm Checker. The FCA says a firm that is not on its warning list may still be unauthorised or a scam. People can report a suspected scam to the FCA, and our guide explains how to check a firm is authorised before investing.

What the companies say

Meta told Which? that its own rules say advertisers of financial products must be authorised by the FCA. It said it had removed 159 million scam ads so far in 2026, and that 92% were removed before anyone reported them.

Google said it suspended the advertiser accounts linked to the ads Which? flagged. It said it blocked or removed more than 602 million ads in 2025, and suspended more than 4 million accounts for breaking its rules on scam ads.

TikTok declined to comment.

What happens next

The Online Safety Act 2023 will make large social media and search platforms tackle scam ads. Those duties are not in force yet.

Ofcom has proposed rules for how platforms should do this. It plans to publish its final rules by mid-2027 at the latest, and they will take effect once Parliament approves them.