Meta Launches Shayek Anti-Scam Campaign in Saudi Arabia With Media Regulator Gmedia

The campaign uses locally relevant content, familiar local voices and practical safety tools. Its aim is to get users to pause before they click a link, share content or send personal information. "It comes down to one simple habit: pause and check before you click, share or send," Fares Akkad, Meta's regional director for the Middle East and Africa, told Arab News.

Akkad said Meta will judge the campaign in stages. It will first look at whether people see and engage with the content, then whether they stop to assess suspicious messages, and then whether more people report scams. "Over time, the real test is whether fewer people get caught out," he said.

AI on Both Sides

Meta pairs awareness campaigns with technical measures such as two-factor authentication, security checkups and reviews of user reports about suspicious messages, ads and accounts. The company told Arab News it is also investing in AI-based detection to find violations more accurately, stop scams sooner and reduce mistaken enforcement.

Meta said early tests of these systems found and dealt with about 5,000 scam attempts a day that its existing review teams had not caught. It said they also cut reports involving the most frequently impersonated celebrities by more than 80 percent. In wider testing, AI systems built to detect fake websites reduced views of scam ads and other serious violations by 7 percent, the company said.

Fraudsters are using the same technology. Arab News cited cybersecurity firm Vector AI, which reported that AI-enabled scams grew 1,210 percent in 2025, against 195 percent growth for traditional fraud, and projected losses could reach $40 billion by 2027. Meta said it has seen a significant rise in AI-enabled scams. In March it signed the voluntary Industry Accord Against Online Scams and Fraud with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others, under which the companies agreed to share threat intelligence and work with law enforcement.

Scrutiny of Meta's Ad Business

The campaign comes while Meta faces continued questions about fraudulent advertising on its own platforms. Internal documents reported by Reuters indicated the company projected that about 10 percent of its 2024 revenue, roughly $16 billion, would come from ads for scams, illegal gambling and banned goods. Meta has said that estimate was broad and included suspicious ads as well as confirmed fraud. It disputes claims that it knowingly profited from fraudulent ads. Meta says it removed more than 159 million scam ads in 2025, 92 percent of them before any user reported them, and took down 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to criminal scam centres.

Why It Matters in the Gulf

Saudi Arabia has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the world, which makes its users an attractive target for online fraud. Working with Gmedia ties a global platform's safety messaging to the kingdom's media regulator. Gulf governments are pushing for faster digital adoption, and consumer trust in online payments and commerce is becoming a policy concern alongside that push. Banks, retailers and delivery companies are among the brands scammers impersonate most often, so how well the region's platforms and regulators cut fraud will matter to them too.