SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reportedly made as much as $16 billion in 2024 from scam and fraudulent advertisements, according to a cache of internal documents reviewed by Reuters. The documents suggest that nearly 10% of Meta’s annual revenue came from ads promoting scams, illegal gambling, and banned products — raising serious concerns about the company’s oversight and priorities.
The leaked documents reveal that Meta internally projected $16 billion in annual revenue from fraudulent or prohibited ads. That figure surpasses the combined advertising revenue earned by all of the NFL’s television partners, highlighting the massive scale of the issue.
According to Reuters, the company’s systems detected about 15 billion “high-risk” scam ads shown daily across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. These ads included fake investment offers, fraudulent e-commerce deals, and illegal medical products. Despite flagging these suspicious ads, Meta often chose not to block them unless its systems were at least 95% sure of fraudulent intent.
When advertisers fell below that threshold, Meta did not suspend them. Instead, the company charged higher ad rates as a “penalty,” allowing it to keep earning revenue from potentially fraudulent campaigns.
Regulators in both the United States and the United Kingdom are investigating Meta’s handling of fraudulent ads. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is examining whether Meta profited from financial scams. In Britain, regulators found that Meta’s platforms were involved in more than half of all payment-related scam losses in 2023 — more than all other social platforms combined. Meta has acknowledged the regulatory risks in filings with the SEC, warning investors that efforts to combat illicit advertising could materially affect future revenue.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the documents present a “selective view” of the company’s internal assessments. He argued that the 10% revenue estimate was “rough and overly inclusive” and included legitimate ads. Stone said Meta is “aggressively fighting fraud and scams” and reported that scam ad reports have dropped by 58% globally in the past 18 months. The company also claimed to have removed over 134 million pieces of scam ad content in 2025.
However, internal documents cited by Reuters show that Meta has placed strict limits on how much revenue it is willing to lose from removing fraudulent ads. In early 2025, enforcement teams reportedly could not take actions that would cost Meta more than 0.15% of its total revenue — about $135 million at the time.
The report also shows that Meta users face billions of scam attempts every day. Along with 15 billion fraudulent ads, another 22 billion “organic scams” — unpaid scam posts — circulate daily on the platforms. These include fake job listings, romance scams, and fraudulent Marketplace listings.
In one case cited by Reuters, a Canadian Air Force recruiter had her Facebook account hacked and used to promote a crypto scam. Despite dozens of user reports, Meta took more than a month to remove the account. Victims lost tens of thousands of dollars before the page was taken down.
According to the documents, Meta executives presented CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a plan in 2024 to gradually reduce scam-related revenue — not eliminate it outright. The company aims to lower its percentage of revenue from scams, illegal gambling, and banned goods from 10.1% in 2024 to 7.3% by the end of 2025, and to about 5.8% by 2027.
A 2025 internal presentation also estimated that Meta platforms were involved in roughly one-third of all successful scams in the United States. The documents show that Meta knows some competitors, including Google, do a better job at blocking scams. Analysts say Meta’s decision to profit from fraudulent ads, even while acknowledging their risks, underscores the need for stronger regulation. Former Meta investigator Sandeep Abraham told Reuters that regulators would never allow banks to profit from fraud — and shouldn’t allow it in tech either.
