Shortly before mid-July, all he wanted was to carry out a simple daily task: open his banking app and check his account. But this time, the screen looked different… A brief notification said that the app was being updated and that access was temporarily unavailable. He tried again and again, then began searching for an explanation, but found no clarification. As his anxiety grew, he turned to what many people do in such moments: he typed the name of his bank into Facebook, looking for a solution.
A page bearing the name “Customer Service” and his bank’s name appeared before him. It seemed highly convincing: recent posts, seemingly genuine comments, a sponsored advertisement at the top of the search results, and professionally designed images and videos. At first glance, there was nothing to arouse suspicion. He sent a message and quickly received a reply from someone who spoke confidently and asked him to follow steps to “reactivate the account and resolve the app problem.” Within minutes, control of his banking app was in the hands of fraudsters.
In a very short time, 100,000 Libyan dinars disappeared from his account, along with $5,000.
This is not an imagined story or a training scenario, but one of the cases handled by the Tahaqaq team during July 2026. The team contacted the victim and listened to the details of what had happened. He confirmed that he had been defrauded at a moment he never expected. The team tried to persuade him to document and publish his story so that his loss could serve as a lesson to protect others, but he refused and chose to remain silent—a decision that is understandable. Many fraud victims fear society’s judgment, embarrassment, or blame more than they fear the financial loss itself.
A study issued by the UK’s National Trading Standards indicates that only 32% of fraud victims report incidents to the authorities, meaning that the majority of cases remain outside official reports. This gap is linked to feelings of shame, fear of blame, and stigma—prompting the agency to launch the “No Blame, No Shame” campaign to encourage victims to report. Silence does not protect victims; it conceals important information that could help the relevant authorities identify recurring patterns and prevent new victims from being targeted.
But what has changed in recent months is not limited to the scale of fraud; it also includes the tools used to carry it out. In just 25 days of July 2026, the Tahaqaq team identified more than 80 impersonation advertisements targeting users of banking services. The team observed that these advertisements no longer relied on poor-quality images or weak copy, but instead used artificial intelligence techniques at various stages of the deception.
Images are now generated in high quality, videos are created to resemble official promotional material, and copy is written in polished, grammatically sound language and a tone resembling statements issued by financial institutions. In some cases, this material appeared more professional than the authentic content published by banks’ official pages.
Artificial intelligence is no longer merely a tool for improving the quality of fraud; it has become part of its operational structure. It reduces production costs, saves time, and makes it possible to create dozens of different versions of a single advertisement within minutes, with the wording, images, and headlines continually changed to evade detection systems.
More concerning still was the Tahaqaq team’s observation that bank logos were being redesigned using artificial intelligence tools or design software, with minor alterations that are difficult for ordinary users to notice, such as changing the thickness of the font, the shape of one of the letters, or the shade of the color. Despite their simplicity, these changes make the logo appear almost identical to the human eye, while technically distinguishing it from the original for automated detection systems.
These tactics have helped fraudulent advertisements remain online for longer periods before being removed, as they now bear less resemblance to content previously reported, giving each campaign a fresh opportunity to spread despite the similarity of its message and objective.
By monitoring reports, the Tahaqaq team observed that responses to the removal of these advertisements remain in place, but face a growing challenge. Every modification made by fraudsters adds a new layer of complexity and gives them additional time to reach more victims before the content is taken down.
