Internal Meta documents, reviewed by Reuters, revealed that the company expected to earn about $16 billion last year from ads promoting scams and banned products, accounting for about 10% of its total revenue.
According to the report, the documents also show that billions of users of company platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were exposed, through advertisements, to fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online gambling and banned medical products for more than three years without the company taking action to stop it.
A December 2024 document shows that platforms display an average of 15 billion “higher risk” fraudulent advertisements every day. This distinction concerns advertisements that meet clear fraud criteria. From posts tagged in this category, Meta earns around $7 billion per year.
While it may seem like Meta was unaware the ads were scams, Reuters reported that the activity was flagged by the company’s internal alert system, designed to identify suspicious marketers. Meta only bans advertisers when its automated systems assess a 95% or greater probability of fraud. Advertisers deemed likely, but not certain, to commit fraud are instead charged higher advertising rates as a penalty.
The results indicate that once a user interacts with a fraudulent ad, they are likely to be offered more fraudulent content because the algorithm prioritizes specific patterns and interests.
Information from Meta’s internal review comes from documents spanning 2021 to 2025, spanning the company’s finance, lobbying, engineering and security divisions. The finding not only highlights Meta’s reluctance to institute regulations that could harm its profit goals, but it also speaks to the larger problem with advertising regulation in Big Tech as a whole.
In a statement to Reuters, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the documents “present a selective view that misrepresents Meta’s approach to fraud and scams.” According to Stone, this figure represented well less than 10% of its annual turnover. “The assessment was carried out to validate our planned investments in integrity – particularly in combating fraud and scams – which we have done,” Stone continued. “We’re aggressively fighting fraud and scams because people on our platforms don’t want this content, legitimate advertisers don’t want it, and we don’t want it either.”
Meta, however, seems aware that this is a growing problem, as some documents reportedly show that Meta is “committed to doing more” in an effort to reduce overall ad scams.
Meta did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
