‘Missing in action’: Westpac attacks Meta over scams
Thursday, 23 April 2026
One of New Zealand’s biggest banks is calling on social media giant Meta to do more to stop fraud and scam content on its platforms, saying Kiwis’ money is being put at risk by fake ads that are too easy to publish and too slow to remove.
Westpac has been trying to get in touch with Meta about a deepfake, AI-generated image of its chief executive Catherine McGrath appearing to clash with NZ First leader Winston Peters.
The bank has reported the scam to Meta, but different versions continued appearing in Facebook feeds for weeks.
“ Meta is not responding quickly or seriously enough to this sort of harmful content and it’s putting New Zealanders’ money at risk,” McGrath said.
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She said while the specific ad no longer appeared to be circulating, Westpac couldn’t confirm that because it had received no communication from Meta.
“With Meta missing in action, we continue to urge our customers to be extremely careful when interacting on social media platforms, especially when offered investment opportunities that seem too good to be true.”
McGrath said it was possible that variations of the scam featuring other high-profile figures are circulating in its place and said Kiwibank chief executive Steve Jurkovich’s image has also been used in similar scams.
Westpac's warning follows a recent alert from the Financial Markets Authority about a rise in scammers using deepfake news articles and AI-generated images to lure people onto fake trading platforms.
Westpac says social media is playing an increasing role in scams affecting its customers.
According to the bank, 64% of scam cases it has handled so far this year originated on social media, up from 57% at the same point last year.
McGrath said the true figure could be higher because some customers were reluctant to say where they had first encountered the scam.
“Right now, it’s much faster and easier for a scammer to publish a fake ad than it is for someone to report it and have it pulled down,” she said.
“As a result, people are losing vast amounts of money to bad actors on Meta’s platforms, and it needs to change.”
Westpac said Meta should invest more in detecting fraud and scam content before it is published, respond faster to reports, provide better updates on what action has been taken, and create a direct reporting channel for information security professionals such as bank financial crime teams.
The bank said such a channel would allow validated scam and fraud activity to be escalated to a Meta team with the ability to act immediately.
After pressure on banks to better respond to scams, the Banking Association has updated its code of practice, so banks must introduce pre-transaction warnings, a 24/7 reporting channel and a service for customers to check the name of the person they are paying matches the account number.
They must also identify high risk transactions and unusual account activity and share scammer account information with other banks.
If a bank fails to adequately warn and protect a customer from a scam, they might have to reimburse them up to $500,000.
McGrath said banks had poured significant resources into protecting customers in recent years, including investment in technology, staff training, industry collaboration and awareness campaigns.
She said Westpac customer losses to fraud and scams have been falling for several years as a result of those changes, she said.
“Meanwhile, Meta continues to make money from scam ads on its platforms.”
She said stronger action from Meta could make a substantial difference to financial crime in New Zealand.
“As a member of the anti-scam alliance, Meta’s actions could help take a huge bite out of financial crime in Aotearoa, yet it seems unwilling to do more than the bare minimum.
“It’s long past time for Meta to step up.”
Meta had not responded to questions by deadline.