Outlook Business Desk
A new investigation by Reuters revealed that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, may have earned over $16 billion in 2024 through fraudulent ads promoting fake investments, gambling and banned medical products.
Nearly 10% of Meta’s total 2024 revenue came from deceptive or scam-related ads, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters, despite the risks such content posed to millions of users worldwide.
The report suggests Meta’s internal system doesn’t block most scam ads. Instead, it assigns each advertiser a fraud probability score before deciding whether to act or charge extra fees.
Meta blocks an advertiser only if fraud probability reaches 95%. If between 80–90%, it simply increases ad fees, letting suspicious advertisers continue paying and boosting Meta’s revenue.
For over three years, Meta allegedly failed to protect users from illegal gambling promotions, fake investment schemes, and banned medical ads, allowing scammers to operate widely across its platforms.
Many scam ads mimicked well-known brands and government agencies, targeting elderly and less tech-savvy users who were more likely to be deceived by false financial offers or banned medical promotions.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone dismissed the report as “selective and misleading,” claiming that it ignored the company’s efforts to detect and remove scam ads from its platforms.
Experts warn that scam ads continue to be a major online threat, increasingly driven by AI-generated faces and voices, raising serious questions over whether Meta values profits more than user safety.