Meta projected $16 billion in annual revenue from scam ads, documents show
Meta Platforms projected late last year that about 10% of its annual revenue — roughly $16 billion — would come from advertising tied to scams and banned goods, according to internal company documents.
A cache of previously unreported documents reviewed by Reuters shows the social media giant has failed for at least three years to identify and stop a flood of fraudulent ads across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Those ads exposed billions of users to fake e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and the sale of banned medical products.
One document from December 2024 said Meta displays about 15 billion “higher-risk” scam ads — those showing clear signs of fraud — every day. Another document from late 2024 estimated the company earns about $7 billion in annual revenue from that category alone.
Much of the fraud stems from marketers flagged by Meta’s internal warning systems as suspicious. However, the company only bans advertisers when its automated tools determine there is at least a 95% chance of fraud, the documents said. If the likelihood is lower — but still significant — Meta instead increases the advertiser’s rates as a penalty to discourage repeat activity.
The documents also note that users who click on scam ads are likely to see more of them because Meta’s ad-personalization system serves ads based on user interests.
The internal reports, produced between 2021 and 2025 across Meta’s finance, lobbying, engineering and safety teams, illustrate the company’s efforts to measure abuse on its platforms — and its reluctance to take actions that could hurt revenue.
