Bank Leumi Sues Meta for NIS 26.6 Million Over Fraudulent Ads on Facebook and Instagram

Bank Leumi filed a lawsuit on Monday in the Tel Aviv District Court against Meta, seeking NIS 26.6 million. The bank accuses Meta of enabling the systematic distribution of paid fraudulent advertisements impersonating Bank Leumi on Facebook and Instagram. According to the complaint, Meta approves and promotes these deceptive ads for payment while ignoring clear warning signs and failing to implement adequate filtering and monitoring mechanisms before publishing the content.

The fraudulent ads unlawfully use Bank Leumi's name and trademarks, offering false incentives such as shopping vouchers and car raffles to lure users into providing login credentials and verification codes. These details were then exploited by attackers to access bank accounts and withdraw funds. The lawsuit highlights obvious signs of fraud in the ads, including awkward language, links to corrupted websites, and publication from anonymous accounts not verified by the bank.

Bank Leumi quantifies its damages at NIS 3.9 million for reimbursing affected customers, NIS 17.7 million for operational costs related to monitoring and investigation, and NIS 5 million for reputational harm. The bank notes a sharp increase in fraudulent activity, with 243 fake ads detected in July alone, exceeding the total for the first half of 2026, and NIS 590,000 in customer losses in early August, alongside NIS 9.2 million in prevented damage.

Beyond financial compensation, the lawsuit demands permanent injunctions against Meta, including mandatory pre-verification of advertisers’ identities, stricter conditions on financial ads, clear warnings on ads from unverified accounts, early access for the bank to review ads using its name, and disclosure of advertiser information for enforcement purposes. Bank Leumi states that previous repeated complaints to Meta resulted only in delayed, limited removal of individual ads.