A Reuters report, citing internal documents, indicates Meta Platforms Inc. could generate billions of dollars annually from fraudulent advertisements displayed across its social media platforms.
These internal Meta documents suggest that scam and prohibited product ads could account for up to 10% of the company’s projected 2024 revenue of $164.5 billion. This translates to an estimated $7 billion annually.
The documents, reviewed by Reuters, reveal approximately 15 billion ads promoting scams or banned products are shown to users daily on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
An internal report, previously undisclosed and titled ‘Scammiest Scammers,’ highlighted Meta’s consistent failure over at least three years to detect and stop a vast number of these deceptive advertisements.
This oversight has exposed billions of Meta’s 3.43 billion monthly active users to schemes including e-commerce fraud, investment scams, illegal online casinos, and the sale of prohibited medical items.
Critics suggest Meta’s current approach, which includes charging higher advertising fees as a “fine” for suspicious advertisers instead of outright bans, demonstrates a reluctance to fully crack down on these scams due to potential business impact.
In response to the Reuters report, Meta issued a statement asserting that the documents presented “cherry-picked information” and distorted the company’s methods for combating fraud and scams.