Feddit.onlineMeta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Powderhornwww.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-…
I ended up in Captcha hell trying to archive this, so I’m afraid I can’t provide a link.
Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10% of its overall annual revenue – or $16 billion – from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show.
A cache of previously unreported documents reviewed by Reuters also shows that the social-media giant for at least three years failed to identify and stop an avalanche of ads that exposed Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp’s billions of users to fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and the sale of banned medical products.
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.
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% 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.
The documents further note 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 a user’s interests.
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👍Maximum Derek👍They’re also inflating conversion numbers (the thing company ad spend is based on) by over 50%. Google is doing the same. So even real ads are only half as effective as companies think.
Good news! There’s an ad bubble too!
There I’d a bubble with customer relations management software as well. My company pays per email sent. The CRM has uses AI to write marketing emails.
Less than 1% of emails are getting clicked on, which leads me to believe all the main providers are automatically putting those emails into spam folders.
TropicalDingdongI mean 1% conversion rate for e-mail marketing isn’t particularly unique for an AI written email or otherwise.
I think 1% conversion is basically the rule of thumb for e-mail marketing, and its about the 10% of that for click through?
So per 1000, you might get 10 clicks and one person going to whatever you are marketing.
I don’t understand why legitmate companies are not in arms over this. When that many ads are scams your customers will learn that facebook ads are scams and not buy from you either. Fool me once…
I keep getting ads for crack cocaine. Been a couple months now, every time I log into Facebook, “CRYSTAL CLEAR, 100% PURE” or some shit.
Like what are the drug cops even supposed to do now, arrest Facebook?
You gotta give us screenshots of that. Please, I beg you.
Dogiedog64Bro there’s no fucking way that’s real. It just can’t be. That’s so bad dude…
The funny thing is, before Google existed, people had no idea if their marketing attempts were working. Maybe they had some ways of knowing or guessing, but there was no way to know how accurate their metrics were. Internet-based advertising, and tracking-based advertising in particular was supposed to change that.
And now that we sit here with a duopoly of advertising giants, we’re back to the stage where marketers just have to trust that their provider is giving them good helpful information. And how are they supposed to know whether they really can believe it or not? They can’t of course! So we’ve come right back to where we’ve started.
But considering they still spent tons of money before Google and Facebook gave them these “analytics”, it looks like they probably don’t even care that much.
It’s crazy that people still use Facebook. But I bet even if you don’t use it, you’re still producing value for them when browsing unrelated websites.
I live in Eastern Europe. 1/3 ads I have seen during the past month while reading google news, have been scam ads. My eye is pretty trained towards them. I even reported some that I thought are REALLY crossing the line, like the one that used AI generated image of Prime Minister of my country, leading to a phishing site. Each time I’ve reported it to google with proof, the answer from google has always been “this does not go against our terms of service”
DFX4509BAt least Meta straight-up admitting to grifting people, Google has yet to do so.
Pikadon’t get me started on their malicious ads system. My grandfather calls me AT LEAST once a week because he clicks one of the posts on facebook and it brings him to a “your computer has a virus please call this number” scare page. I basically have had to tell him “if it says sponsored just don’t click it” because Meta has like no vetting system it seems.
Not just no vetting the odd time I’m in there I report that shit and they NEVER take it down. Just say they deemed it “didn’t go against facebook’s community standards.”
Why not install an adblocker on his browser of choice?
he currently has an adblocker (ublock unless hes replaced or disabled it) and a pihole setup to filter DNS, but that only works so well with facebook.
Joe BreuerWhich adblocker can block Facebook ad posts?
MaggiWuerzeprobably uBlock Origin
wizardbeardI might also look into Social Fixer, if that addon is still around. Used to be the best one for customizing Facebook’s bullshit away.
UnderpantsWeevilReally raises the question of how profitable these scam ads have become.
Also speaks to the addictive quality of social media (or perhaps the grim state of offline society). People keep coming back to these obviously booby-trapped websites to claw at a thin veneer of simulated friendship because they’ve got nothing better to do with their lives.
Really raises the question of how profitable these scam ads have become.
It does, doesn’t it?
If Meta is literally making billions from ads, how much are the scammers buying them making?
People keep coming back to these obviously booby-trapped websites to claw at a thin veneer of simulated friendship because they’ve got nothing better to do with their lives.
Eh, part of it is FOMO. I can’t blame older folks if all their friends and kids and grandkids are on (say) Facebook, and that’s the most advanced means they have of communicating with them that they’re capable of using. What are they supposed to do?
What are they supposed to do?
My grandparents spent a lot of time playing tennis and bridge, knitting, and fishing.
I don’t use fb at all. Never used it. Always thought it was stupid. My life is unaffected by this. I never ever go to the garbage that is fb for any reason.
Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft are all criminal organisations who has been found guilty of multiple crimes and shows no sign of remorse or change of behaviour. Shareholders and employees with these companies should be held accountable, if not legally, then socially.
SuiXi3DI use Facebook (I know) daily and I go out of my way to hide and/or report every ad I see. The vast majority are displayed alongside Reels (which is its own problem) but a few are just… regular reels, masquerading as ads. It’s incredibly frustrating. I don’t expect anything to be done, similar to my reporting hate speech against gay and trans folks.
I use Facebook behind as many adblockers as I can, I use social fixer on top of that (browser extension that helps prune FB even more)
On my phone, in the app, this doesn’t prevent them from suggesting friends, suggesting reels, suggesting random people or pages to follow
I use fb mostly for groups not just telling everyone what I’m doing or caring about what everyone else is.
But I make it to 1-3 things I have to hide (x out of) and I just bounce, close and pause the app
Like if I open fb and I immediately see a post asking me to follow something I just get out and open lemmy…
Screw meta
I run PiHole in my house
I VPN to my house when away to get that sweet ad blocking
I run unlock origin
I run social fixer
I don’t see actual ads in FB just their BS they want me to interact with over my actual feed
They probably aren’t even counting all the political scams and disinformation. In the past year FB has tried to push right wing extremist propaganda from about 40-50 different sources on me, despite me banning each one, one at a time. What the fuck FB??? Why are you trying super hard to peddle Fascism on Americans? Why are the people running FB such incredible sociopaths? I also got 4 posts from left/liberal sources, and I rejected those too. Why the f*ck would anybody wish to use something as crappy and untrustworthy as Facebook to get political information from? Only if the source was Bernie Sanders himself would I consider “subscribing”.
Zuckerberg deserves the phrase “fascist sociopath” on his tombstone.
Most of their ads for goods are scams, I keep seeing great ads for band merchandise but the smallest amount of research shows that the sites are fake. I got scammed a while back by a fake vinyl sale but fortunately my CC company reversed the charges.
Just ask the CBC.
In Canada there are a ton of fake scam ads pretending to be politicians and the CBC
https://archive.ph/awzQo
If you open YouTube shorts in a new account or an account that doesn’t store history the ads are nearly exclusively AI slop scams. This is not just a Meta issue.
Base 44.
Base 44, over and over and over again on my account with the history turned off.
I see “Elon Musk” invitating me to secret whatsapp groups where he is going to give me bitcoin
Who watches ads on YouTube?
I get what you’re saying is a joke, but most people don’t know about Newpipe or whatever the current alternative app is, and soon most people won’t be able to sideload anyway when Google makes it’s changes to Android.
It’s not good that Google/Meta are exposing these people to scammed for the crime of simply for not knowing how to sideload.
I guess I’m going to have to root my phone soon. Maybe move to graphene. I was not looking forward to that.
https://archive.is/20251106150119/https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/
What a way to run a business! I think we could all learn a lot from the zuck.