In the third edition of Tahaqaq’s monthly report, we use data and evidence to reveal how financial scams and fraud tactics on Facebook in Libya evolved during September 2026. The report documents 600 cases of bank identity impersonation (through pages, posts, and sponsored advertisements) and highlights one of the largest scam campaigns targeting job seekers.
Key findings from this month’s report:
1. The blue badge is no longer a guarantee of safety:
We identified three pages bearing the genuine blue verification badge that were impersonating Libyan banks, and our team succeeded in shutting them down. This means the old advice to “check for the blue badge” no longer protects users.
2. Exploiting genuine banking services: Scammers are now studying each bank’s services, advertising prizes for genuine cardholders, and tricking customers into sending a text message to the bank’s official number before obtaining the secret code and using it to activate their account on the scammers’ devices.
3. Concentrated attacks and impersonation of the Central Bank:
Just four banks accounted for 85.3% of impersonation attempts, with one bank receiving 57.5% of the campaigns impersonating its identity. We also identified a page impersonating the “Central Bank of Libya” for the first time.
4. Websites cloning banks’ identities using artificial intelligence and AI-generated short videos:
Scammers are using artificial intelligence to build fake web pages and interfaces that resemble or impersonate banks’ applications and websites. They are also relying on short videos (28.3%) to achieve free reach and directing 85.8% of victims to Messenger to conceal phone numbers.
5. An offshore fraud infrastructure:
87% of the numbers used were foreign numbers from 10 countries. We identified sequential British numbers used in bulk to target the impersonation of a specific bank, as well as activity by impersonating pages that remained active for up to 33 days.
6. The fake-job “pay to earn” trap:
We identified dozens of pages promoting work-from-home jobs in the largest campaign of this type of fraud ever detected by our team. Victims were lured into paying money through a fake task platform, resulting in losses exceeding hundreds of thousands of dinars.
Our recommendations for banks and citizens:
The report presents a clear action plan and recommendations for banks and relevant authorities to secure their services and establish a national task force to pursue scammers and curb their spread. It also includes 10 simplified warning signs to help citizens protect their money.
