Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show

Internal documents reveal Meta projected it would earn $16 billion - about 10% of its 2024 revenue - from running ads for scams and banned goods¹. The company shows users an estimated 15 billion “higher risk” scam advertisements daily, generating about $7 billion in annual revenue from these fraudulent ads².

Meta’s own safety staff estimated that its platforms were involved in one-third of all successful scams in the US, while in Britain, Meta’s products were linked to 54% of all payments-related scam losses in 2023³.

Rather than aggressively combat fraud, Meta charges suspected scammers higher ad rates as a “disincentive"⁴. The company’s anti-fraud team operates under strict revenue limits - they can only take actions that would reduce ad revenue by 0.15% ($135 million) even though scam ads generate $7 billion yearly⁵.

Internal memos show Meta concluded that potential regulatory fines of up to $1 billion would be far less than their revenue from fraudulent ads⁶. “It is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google,” stated an internal Meta review from April 2025⁷.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone claimed these documents “present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams” and said the company had “reduced user reports of scam ads globally by 58 percent” over 18 months⁸.

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