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Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is facing renewed scrutiny after internal documents revealed that as much as 10% of its 2024 revenue – around $16 billion – came from advertising linked to scams and banned goods.
Meta’s hidden goldmine: Scam advertising
For those of you who read regularly you will know that Payments Cards & Mobile has long advocated the Meta step up and reduce scam advertising and also be part of the system that reimburses victims.
The disclosures, first reported by Reuters, paint a troubling picture of how one of the world’s largest technology companies has profited from illicit activity on its platforms, even as regulators around the world intensify efforts to clamp down on online fraud.
A Flood of Fraud: 15 Billion Scam Ads a Day
The leaked documents show that Meta’s internal teams estimate users were exposed to around 15 billion scam ads every single day.
These ranged from fraudulent investment schemes to illegal gambling sites and counterfeit or banned medical products.
Much of this activity was generated by advertisers already flagged as suspicious by Meta’s automated systems – yet the company only permanently bans such advertisers if it is 95% certain they are fraudulent.
When certainty falls below that threshold, Meta does not block the ads.
Instead, it reportedly charges higher advertising rates to suspected scammers, effectively profiting from their activity while claiming to deter them.
The logic, according to the documents, was that increased costs might discourage rogue advertisers.
Monetising Risk: Profit Over Protection
Perhaps most striking is the company’s apparent calculation that cleaning up its advertising ecosystem too aggressively would hurt business performance.
Internal memos discuss “revenue guardrails” that limit how much income Meta can afford to lose from blocking scam ads. In early 2025, this cap was reportedly set at 0.15% of company revenue, around $135 million.
In practice, that means enforcement teams were instructed to tread carefully – to be “cautious,” as one internal manager put it – even when handling ads linked to clear consumer harm.
By contrast, documents also reveal that Meta expects to face up to $1 billion in regulatory fines for these same practices, a figure dwarfed by the billions it earns from high-risk ad placements every six months.
A Platform at the Heart of the Global Fraud Economy
Meta’s own researchers concluded that its platforms have become a pillar of the global online fraud economy, with a 2025 presentation estimating that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were implicated in a third of all successful scams in the US.
In the UK, regulators found that Meta’s products were involved in over half of all payments-related scam losses in 2023, more than all other social media platforms combined.
By comparison, the company’s internal analysis found it is easier to advertise scams on Meta than on Google, a damning admission that undercuts years of corporate messaging about safety and integrity.
Zuckerberg’s Balancing Act: AI Growth Versus Integrity
Meta has promised to reduce the share of its revenue coming from scam and prohibited advertising, targeting a fall from 10.1% in 2024 to 7.3% by the end of 2025, and below 6% by 2027.
But those same documents reveal a cautious approach – prioritising enforcement only in markets where regulators are poised to act.
Meanwhile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to pour billions into artificial intelligence infrastructure, insisting that Meta’s ad revenue gives the company the “capital to do this.”
The contradiction is stark: Meta’s profitability depends on advertising, yet that very engine has been contaminated by fraud on a colossal scale.
The revelations raise pressing questions for regulators.
Just as Open Banking forced the financial sector to adopt tighter authentication and data transparency standards, the digital advertising industry may soon face similar demands.
If banks cannot profit from fraud, why should platforms?
Meta’s own figures show that the company has made progress, claiming to have cut scam ad reports by 58% over the past 18 months.
Yet as long as billions in revenue depend on deception, critics argue, the company’s incentives will remain misaligned with user protection.
The scam economy has found its most powerful enabler not on the dark web, but in the mainstream feed of modern social media.
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