Meta made billions from scam ads, reports say; company disputes figures

New Delhi: Meta Platforms is earning billions from fraudulent and prohibited advertisements despite years of internal alarms, according to company documents reviewed by Reuters. 

The papers, produced between 2021 and 2025 across finance, public policy, engineering and safety teams, estimate that scam ads and promotions for banned goods accounted for roughly 10% of Meta’s 2024 revenue, i.e., about $16 billion.

Within that, about $7 billion a year is attributed to ads classified internally as “higher risk” for fraud. 

The files also estimate that Meta’s systems serve users around 15 billion such deceptive promotions daily. One May 2025 analysis suggested Meta’s apps are involved in about one-third of successful scams in the United States. A separate April 2025 memo concluded it is easier to run scam ads on Meta than on rivals such as Google.

Case studies in the documents include the hacked Facebook account of a Royal Canadian Air Force recruiter that was used to push bogus crypto investments, with at least four colleagues losing tens of thousands of Canadian dollars. Other recurring patterns include fake luxury discounts, unlicensed online casinos, banned medical products and sextortion schemes targeting teenagers.

Internally, Meta has tried measures such as “penalty bids,” which raise ad prices for suspected scammers to make their campaigns less competitive. But the files indicate enforcement has been constrained. In the first half of 2025, the company capped actions against questionable advertisers to avoid revenue losses above $135 million. 

A 2023 review found Meta ignored or rejected 96% of valid user scam reports, far above an internal ceiling of 75%. Layoffs have further strained moderation, with one 2025 document describing Meta as a “pillar of the global fraud economy.”

Meta pushed back. Spokesperson Andy Stone called the 10% revenue estimate “rough and overly inclusive,” saying it sweeps in legitimate ads alongside fraudulent ones. 

He said global user reports of scam ads are down 58% over the past 18 months and that Meta removed 134 million pieces of scam content in 2025. 

The company aims to reduce scam-ad revenue to 7.3% by the end of 2025, with further cuts planned, and has expanded teams focused on the problem despite broader cost reductions. 

Stone added that combating scams aligns with Meta’s business interests, rejecting the idea that action is driven mainly by regulatory pressure.

The documents nonetheless show Meta anticipating up to $1 billion in fines tied to scam ads, an amount viewed internally as manageable against the revenue at stake. 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating financial scam ads on the platform, while a UK report linked Meta to 54% of payment-related scam losses in 2023.