American tech giant Meta on Monday took down dozens of Facebook and Instagram advertisements that used pornography content as bait to steal Indian users’ banking credentials through malware downloads.
At least 39 of the advertisements, including “Night Play” and “Kyss”, were still active after Indian authorities issued an advisory, Reuters found, but Meta later took them down after the news outlet flagged them to the company.
Indian authorities said the ads directed Facebook and Instagram users to phishing websites, after which they were directed to download Android apps disguised as pornographic apps.
The government said it had observed an increase in financial fraud that involved “malicious Android applications masquerading as pornography apps”.
It said the apps secretly accessed users’ information stored on their phones, including bank PINs, and subsequently transferred funds without the owners’ authorisation.
An estimated $2.4 billion was lost to cyber scams in 2025 as perpetrators targeted the country’s booming digital payment platforms, according to official figures.
The ads, which used sexually explicit video thumbnails to garner clicks, were still active despite the Indian authorities’ earlier advisory.
According to the news outlet, one of the ads remained active and, when clicked upon, directed users to download “Movexa.apk” outside an official app store.
In its advertising policies, Meta states that ads “must not contain adult nudity and sexual activity” and must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices, including those meant to scam people out of money or personal information.
This comes weeks after the Indian government directed the tech giant to disable advertisements on Instagram that promote child abuse material.
It also gave Meta one week to explain how the materials were allowed on Instagram.
In its defence, Meta said it has “a zero-tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing” content that facilitates or promotes child sexual abuse and that it deploys advanced AI technology to detect such materials.
The Indian government had also directed Google to remove accounts on its Firebase platform over rising financial fraud.