"Meta has been quietly profiting from a flood of fraudulent advertising that exposes billions of users to scams, according to internal company documents reviewed by Reuters. The social media giant projected it would earn approximately $16 billion, or 10% of its overall annual revenue, from running advertisements for scams and banned goods in 2024. The cache of previously unreported documents spanning from 2021 to this year reveals that Meta failed for at least three years"
"One December 2024 document notes that Meta shows its platform users an estimated 15 billion higher risk scam advertisements every day. These are ads that display clear signs of being fraudulent. The company earns approximately $7 billion in annualized revenue from this category of scam ads alone, according to another late 2024 document. Beyond paid advertising, Meta users face an additional 22 billion organic scam attempts daily, according to a December 2024 presentation."
"Much of the fraud comes from marketers acting suspiciously enough to trigger Meta 's internal warning systems. However, the company only bans advertisers if its automated systems predict the marketers are at least 95% certain to be committing fraud. When Meta is less certain but still believes an advertiser is likely a scammer, the company charges higher ad rates as a penalty rather than removing them from the platform. Users trapped in a scam cycle The documents further reveal that users who click on scam ads are likely to see more of them because of Meta's ad personalization system, which tries to deliver ads based on user interests."
Internal company documents show Meta projected about $16 billion (roughly 10% of revenue) from running ads for scams and banned goods in 2024. The documents indicate at least three years of failure to identify and halt ads promoting fraudulent e-commerce, illegal online casinos, fake investment schemes and prohibited medical products across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. A December 2024 document estimates 15 billion higher-risk scam ads shown daily, generating roughly $7 billion annually from that category, while a presentation reports 22 billion organic scam attempts daily. Meta bans advertisers only when automated systems are ≥95% certain of fraud; otherwise it raises ad rates as a penalty. Ad personalization leads users who click scam ads to see more such ads.
Read at Rolling Out
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