Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is pushing Meta to shut down Facebook and WhatsApp accounts that have been used to run investment scams against New Yorkers, adding state-level pressure to a problem that federal prosecutors say has already cost victims hundreds of millions of dollars.
Bragg’s office made the demand public in April 2026. As first reported by The New York Times, the DA called on Meta to act faster against fraudulent accounts that pose as financial advisors and lure users into bogus investment schemes. The request targets both Facebook, where scammers build polished fake profiles, and WhatsApp, where they move conversations to avoid public scrutiny.
“New Yorkers are being targeted every single day by criminals who exploit these platforms to steal their savings,” a spokesperson for Bragg’s office said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Meta has the tools to stop this, and we are demanding that they use them.”
The push comes as a separate federal case in Chicago has laid bare just how lucrative these scams have become.
A $214 million fraud built on fake advisors
Federal prosecutors in Chicago seized $214 million tied to an alleged pump-and-dump investment scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. A grand jury indicted seven defendants who allegedly ran the operation between November 2024 and February 2025.
The playbook was simple and ruthless. The defendants created online personas that mimicked legitimate, U.S.-based financial professionals, complete with polished profiles and fabricated track records. Once they earned a target’s trust, they directed that person to buy specific stocks or other assets whose prices had been artificially inflated. When enough buyers pushed the price high enough, the operators dumped their own holdings at the peak. Victims were left with steep losses.
A verified complaint for forfeiture filed in U.S. District Court details how the defendants deposited shares into victim accounts and orchestrated sales to generate illicit proceeds. The document includes specific dollar amounts and seizure dates, forming the evidentiary foundation for the government’s bid to permanently confiscate the funds.
Prosecutors identified social media and messaging platforms as the primary tools the defendants used to find and groom victims, though the federal filings do not single out Facebook or WhatsApp by name.
Bragg’s demand to Meta
Bragg’s office has framed its demand as a consumer protection measure. The DA wants Meta to remove accounts that impersonate investment professionals and to act more aggressively when users report suspected fraud. The request is directed squarely at Meta’s two most widely used products: Facebook, which has roughly 3 billion monthly active users globally, and WhatsApp, which has more than 2 billion.
The two enforcement actions, one in New York and one in Illinois, appear to be independent. But they share a common target: the use of social platforms as the front door for financial fraud. In the Chicago case, prosecutors described how scammers built credibility through social media before steering victims into manipulated investments. Bragg’s initiative reflects the same concern, applied to a different jurisdiction and a broader category of scam accounts.
As of May 2026, Meta has not publicly detailed how it has responded to Bragg’s request or what specific steps it plans to take. The company has previously said it invests heavily in automated detection systems and employs teams dedicated to removing fraudulent accounts, but it has not disclosed scam-specific detection rates or average removal times in connection with this matter.
The human cost
Behind the dollar figures are real people who lost money they could not afford to lose. One New York retiree, described in reporting by The New York Times, said she lost more than $80,000 after a person she believed to be a licensed financial advisor contacted her through Facebook and guided her through a series of trades on an unfamiliar platform. “I thought I was finally going to have enough to help my grandchildren with college,” she told the paper. “Instead I lost almost everything I had saved.”
Her experience fits a pattern that consumer advocates say is alarmingly common. “These scammers are not amateurs. They study their victims, build relationships over weeks or months, and strike when the person trusts them completely,” said a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, speaking about the broader trend of social-media investment fraud.
The bigger picture on platform-hosted fraud
The scale of the problem extends well beyond a single case. The Federal Trade Commission reported that Americans lost more than $5.7 billion to investment scams in 2024, making it the costliest fraud category the agency tracks. Social media was the most commonly reported point of contact for those scams, according to FTC data.
Encrypted messaging apps have compounded the challenge. Once a scammer moves a conversation from a public-facing platform like Facebook to an encrypted channel like WhatsApp, the interaction becomes far harder for automated systems or human moderators to monitor. That shift from public to private is a deliberate tactic, and it exploits a structural gap in how platforms police their own ecosystems.
Federal criminal cases generally target the individuals running schemes, while civil regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission focus on securities law violations. Bragg’s approach is different: it points at the infrastructure scammers rely on. Without clear statutory mandates compelling platforms to proactively police investment-related content, efforts like his may depend more on public pressure than courtroom orders.
What remains unanswered
Several important questions are still open. No primary source document from Bragg’s office, such as the letter sent to Meta executives, has been made publicly available for independent review. The specifics of his demand were first reported by The New York Times, and no other outlet has independently published the full text of the communication.
The financial toll on New York residents specifically has not been quantified in any publicly available state records. The $214 million figure from Chicago offers a concrete benchmark, but it reflects a single enforcement action, not a full accounting of platform-facilitated fraud nationwide.
Whether the seven Chicago defendants have been arrested, are cooperating, or remain at large has not been detailed in the public filings reviewed for this report. The case is still in its early stages, and the allegations remain unproven until adjudicated at trial.
How to protect yourself
The most effective defense is also the simplest: do not send money or share brokerage account credentials with anyone who contacted you through social media. Legitimate financial advisors operate through regulated firms, provide written disclosures, and do not cold-message strangers with promises of fast returns.
Watch for common warning signs. Profiles that showcase lavish lifestyles, guarantee outsized gains, or push to move conversations quickly to encrypted apps are following a well-documented scam playbook. Requests to transfer funds to personal accounts, cryptocurrency wallets, or unfamiliar trading platforms should raise immediate suspicion. Pitches involving thinly traded stocks or obscure digital tokens with promises of imminent price spikes closely mirror the behavior alleged in the Chicago indictment.
Before acting on any investment advice received online, verify the person’s identity independently. Check professional licenses through databases like the SEC’s Investor.gov or FINRA’s BrokerCheck. Call the firm using a phone number listed on its own website, not one provided in a message. When in doubt, consult a trusted financial professional before committing any money.
If you believe you have encountered a scam, report the account directly within Facebook or WhatsApp. You can also file complaints with local law enforcement, your state attorney general’s office, or federal agencies including the Federal Trade Commission. Individual reports may not trigger immediate action, but aggregated complaints help authorities identify patterns and build larger investigations like the one that led to the $214 million seizure in Chicago.
Bragg’s demand and the Chicago prosecution highlight the same uncomfortable reality: platforms built for social connection have become pipelines for sophisticated financial fraud. Prosecutors can seize assets and file charges after the damage is done, but the speed and reach of digital scams mean that prevention depends on a combination of stronger platform enforcement and sharper individual skepticism. Until companies like Meta offer more transparency about how they detect and remove fraudulent accounts, personal vigilance remains the first and most reliable line of defense.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
