Support NeoGAF

[winjer]

Forbes - Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show

Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, documents seen by Reuters show. And the social media giant internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day. Among its responses to suspected rogue marketers: charging them a premium for ads – and issuing reports on 'Scammiest Scammers.'

On average, one December 2024 document notes, the company shows its platforms' users an estimated 15 billion "higher risk" scam advertisements – those that show clear signs of being fraudulent – every day. Meta earns about $7 billion in annualized revenue from this category of scam ads each year, another late 2024 document states.

Meta's acceptance of revenue from sources it suspects are committing fraud highlights the lack of regulatory oversight of the advertising industry, said Sandeep Abraham, a fraud examiner and former Meta safety investigator who now runs a consultancy called Risky Business Solutions.
"If regulators wouldn't tolerate banks profiting from fraud, they shouldn't tolerate it in tech," he told Reuters.

In a statement, Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the documents seen by Reuters "present a selective view that distorts Meta's approach to fraud and scams." The company's internal estimate that it would earn 10.1% of its 2024 revenue from scams and other prohibited ads was "rough and overly-inclusive," Stone said. The company had later determined that the true number was lower, because the estimate included "many" legitimate ads as well, he said. He declined to provide an updated figure.
"The assessment was done to validate our planned integrity investments – including in combatting frauds and scams – which we did," Stone said. He added: "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 percent and, so far in 2025, we've removed more than 134 million pieces of scam ad content," Stone said.

But those fines would be much smaller than Meta's revenue from scam ads, a separate document from November 2024 states. Every six months, Meta earns $3.5 billion from just the portion of scam ads that "present higher legal risk," the document says, such as those falsely claiming to represent a consumer brand or public figure or demonstrating other signs of deceit. That figure almost certainly exceeds "the cost of any regulatory settlement involving scam ads."

It is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google.

 

[DeepEnigma]

It's why they won't ever do anything about bots. Ever. And AI will dial up to millions times worse.

 

[Sticks]

 

[Cyberpunkd]

It's why they won't ever do anything about bots. Ever. And AI will dial up to millions times worse.

Not to mention bots inflate engagement metrics and active user numbers.

 

[ForAcademicPurposes]

 

[falconhoof]

That's a lot of people who need to discover the power of ad blockers. Also, to delete their facebook account. Who the fuck has one of those?

 

[Chittagong]

My wife has been reporting the scam ads for a while and was wondering why they just keep on coming. Now we know.

As soon as I can get GPT to scrape my Facebook posts and turn them into iOS Journal entries I will leave for good.

 

[falconhoof]

My wife has been reporting the scam ads for a while and was wondering why they just keep on coming. Now we know.

As soon as I can get GPT to scrape my Facebook posts and turn them into iOS Journal entries I will leave for good.

Just download your data. All your posts will be downloadable as files.

 

[willothedog]

That's a lot of people who need to discover the power of ad blockers. Also, to delete their facebook account. Who the fuck has one of those?

about 38% of the global population, so not many

 

[Atrus]

I've also seen a number of deepfake Google ads on YouTube promoting financial scams that I've had to report.

Frankly, all tech companies should be fined for their proceeds from criminal activities. They must know their customers, the products and services delivered on their platform, and must distinguish and disclose the number of users from the number of bots.

Any company purchasing a bot or using a service involving them must have disclosure and the bot must be identified as such in all interactions with people.

 

[jason10mm]

You mean that "date night with Salma Hayek...anything goes..." experience i just spent $1000 might be....fake?!?!?!

 

[winjer]

My wife has been reporting the scam ads for a while and was wondering why they just keep on coming. Now we know.

As soon as I can get GPT to scrape my Facebook posts and turn them into iOS Journal entries I will leave for good.

This is why an adblocker is so important for online safety.
Even the FBI recommends using one to avoid scams, virus and other issues.

 

[jufonuk]

How much does Gaf make on those ads that cover a lot of the screen ?

I don't mind. Ads but a few times they've taken up a lot of space on the mobile screen

 

[666]

Awesome. If you're mong enough to use these shifty "services" then you're mong enough to be fair game.

 

[Sybrix]

How much does Gaf make on those ads that cover a lot of the screen ?

I don't mind. Ads but a few times they've taken up a lot of space on the mobile screen

I never use NeoGaf on my phone, it's a fucking mess, a horrible experiance, the amount of ad's its crazy, it's a good 30% of the screen taken over by ad's.

Thank god for AdBlocker on FireFox.

I watched YouTube on a mate's TV the other day and i couldnt get over the amount of adverts that kept popping up, it ruined the experiance.

 

[Ozzie666]

In the 80's there was a Max Hedrom episode thar feature I believe 'blip ads' or something. Where normal commercials of 30 seconds were blitzed into people brains in seconds. We are almost there now, so many adds. GAF on a phone is extremely unpleasant.

It's been a while since I saw the episode, but it's something that awlays stuck with me. Now I get to see it in action sort of.

 

[Avid Reading Horse]

I believe in the death penalty for scammers. 7 billion for the ads so the scams are clearing tens or hundreds of billions... That's a lot of confused old ladies dumping their life savings into the bitcoin Kiosk at the truck stop that you're going to have to answer for once I'm in power, Zuck.

 

[winjer]

I believe in the death penalty for scammers. 7 billion for the ads so the scams are clearing tens or hundreds of billions... That's a lot of confused old ladies dumping their life savings into the bitcoin Kiosk at the truck stop that you're going to have to answer for once I'm in power, Zuck.

That would put Zuckerberg first in line for the chopping block.

 

[Tieno]

anti-social network

 

[jason10mm]

In the 80's there was a Max Hedrom episode thar feature I believe 'blip ads' or something. Where normal commercials of 30 seconds were blitzed into people brains in seconds. We are almost there now, so many adds. GAF on a phone is extremely unpleasant.

Subliminal ads was a big thing back on the 80s/89s as a form of mind control.

reminds me of this classic snl character (all the trump talk in it was coincidental, its the top result, funny though

 

[AJUMP23]

Most of facebook is ads. I would like to earn 10% of that in 6 months and I will also run fake scam ads.