Ներքին փաստաթղթերը ցույց են տալիս, որ Meta-ն կանխատեսում է $24 մլրդ եկամուտ խարդախության գովազդից

• Topic:Consumer Protection

2h ago2 hours agoFri 7 Nov 2025 at 4:29am

In short:

Meta projected that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue in 2024 from running advertising for scams, internal company documents have shown.

The unreported documents reviewed by Reuters show that the social-media giant failed for at least three years to identify and stop ads that were shown to billions of people.

What's next?

A Meta spokesperson said the company would "aggressively fight fraud and scams because people on our platforms don't want this content".

Meta projected last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue — $US16 billion ($24.6 billion) — from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show.

Users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were exposed to fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos and the sale of banned medical products.

The unreported documents reviewed by Reuters show that for at least three years, the social media giant failed to identify and stop an avalanche of ads that were shown to billions of people.

On average, one December 2024 document notes, the company showed its platforms' users an estimated 15 billion "higher risk" scam advertisements every day.

Meta earns about $US7 billion in annualised revenue from this category of scam ads each year, another late 2024 document says.

According to Meta spokesperson Andy Stone, these documents "present a selective view that distorts Meta's approach to fraud and scams".

The company's internal estimate that it would earn 10.1 per cent of its 2024 revenue from scams and other prohibited ads was "rough and overly inclusive" Mr Stone added without providing an updated figure.

"The assessment was done to validate our planned integrity investments — including in combating frauds and scams — which we did," he said.

Meta says it is fighting 'aggressively' against scams

Much of the fraud came from marketers acting suspiciously enough to be flagged by Meta's internal warning systems.

But the company only bans advertisers if its automated systems predict the marketers are at least 95 per cent certain to be committing fraud, the documents show.

If the company is less certain — but still believes the advertiser is a likely scammer — Meta charges higher ad rates as a penalty, according to the documents. The idea is to dissuade suspect advertisers from placing ads.

"We aggressively fight 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,"

"Over the past 18 months, we have reduced user reports of scam ads globally by 58 per cent and, so far in 2025, we've removed more than 134 million pieces of scam ad content."

Some of the documents reviewed by Reuters show Meta vowing to do more.

"We have large goals to reduce ad scams in 2025," states a 2024 document, with Meta hoping to reduce such ads in certain markets by as much as 50 per cent.

In other places, documents show managers congratulating staffers for successful scam reduction efforts.

At the same time, the documents indicate that Meta's own research suggests its products have become a pillar of the global fraud economy.

A May 2025 presentation by its safety staff estimated that the company's platforms were involved in a third of all successful scams in the US.

Amid intensifying pressure to do more to combat scams on Meta's platforms, executives presented chief executive Mark Zuckerberg with a plan in October 2024 for what they called a moderate approach to scam enforcement.

Instead of a rapid crackdown, the company would focus its efforts on countries where it feared near-term regulatory action, according to a document that outlined the strategy.

Rather than voluntarily agreeing to do more to vet advertisers, the unreported documents states, the company's leadership decided to act only in response to impending regulatory action.

Mr Stone disputed the strategy documents' assertions that Meta should only act if forced. That isn't the company's policy, he said.

Scam ads on Meta target regular people

Last October, a recruiter for the Royal Canadian Air Force woke up to find herself locked out of her Facebook account. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of her military status, had been hacked.

Soon a picture of a fake employment badge with her face on it appeared on her account — along with the text, "I'm super happy to announce I'm crypto currency certified".

The recruiter said she immediately filed multiple reports with Meta but did not hear a response for weeks.

In that time her account began claiming that she had struck it rich with crypto — even acquiring land for a dream home — and she wanted to give her friends the same opportunity.

After about a month, Mike Lavery, a former Canadian army officer who the recruiter had worked with years before, called her. He had lost $C40,000 ($43,000) after investing in the crypto scam.

"I thought I was talking to a trusted friend who has a really good reputation," Mr Lavery told Reuters about the recruiter's hijacked Facebook account.

The woman estimated that Meta received more than 100 reports but by the time it finally took her hacked account offline, at least four other military colleagues had been defrauded, she said.

Brian Mason, an Edmonton Police investigator, was able to help track $C65,000 of the victims' stolen funds to Nigeria.

'Scammiest' scammers profiled in in-house reports

Even when advertisers are caught red-handed, the rules can be lenient, the documents indicate.

A small advertiser would have to get flagged for promoting financial fraud at least eight times before Meta blocked it, a 2024 document said.

Some bigger spenders — known as "High Value Accounts" — could accrue more than 500 strikes without Meta shutting them down, other documents said.

Fraudulent ad campaigns can reach massive size. Four removed by Meta earlier this year were responsible for $US67 million in monthly advertising revenue, a document reviewed by Reuters shows.

To draw attention to the company's perceived failures, an employee earlier this year began issuing reports highlighting that week's "Scammiest Scammer".

The report profiled whichever advertiser had earned the most user complaints about scams in the past week.

Colleagues praised the initiative, however, being name-checked in the report was not always enough for such accounts to get shut down.

A check by Reuters of five accounts cited in one Scammiest Scammer report found that two were still live more than six months later, including one that was running ads for unlicensed online casinos.

After Reuters flagged those two accounts to Meta, they were taken down.

A torrent of fake accounts pretending to be celebrities or to represent major consumer brands have popped up in Australia and worldwide.

But despite the surge in online fraud, another 2022 document notes Meta's "lack of investment" in automated scam detection back then.

Meta classified scam ads as a "low-severity" problem — viewing them as a bad "user experience", the document says.

Reuters