Facebook and Instagram are paradises for scammers, reveal Meta’s internal documents

Reuters shed light on Meta’s lucrative business built on selling fraudulent ads on its platforms — Facebook and Instagram. Internal company documents obtained by the news agency show that 10.1% of Meta’s 2024 revenue, or US$ 16 billion, came from fraudulent/scam ads.

A December 2024 document shows Meta running an average of 15 billion fraudulent ads per day. Those add to 22 billion pieces of suspicious “organic” content (unpaid) — from hacked profiles offering crypto schemes to promises of miracle cures in groups, and fake listings on Facebook Marketplace.

Nick Heer did a simple calculation, based on the 3.5 billion users Meta claims, to reach an alarming figure: each person using Facebook and/or Instagram sees on average 10 fraudulent items per day.

Worse, Meta’s algorithmic recommendation system ensures that someone predisposed to falling for scams is bombarded with even more suspicious content and ads.

Given that it’s impossible to block ads on Facebook and Instagram, it wouldn’t be crazy to treat them all as suspicious. And legitimate advertisers who still believe they depend on Meta for business should consider the platforms’ reputation — which, as the reporting shows, is deserved — as havens for scammers and a potential reputational risk.

Meta is the prime example of the “enshittification” Cory Doctorow describes, in his own words. “Meta’s depravity and greed in the face of truly horrifying fraud and scams on its platform is breathtaking.”

In an interview for the Decoder podcast around the release of the book that coined the term, Sarah Jeong asks Cory for “the most iconic example of enshittification,” to which he answers “Facebook.”

That interview predates the Reuters revelations.

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Jeff Horwitz’s Reuters investigation is packed with other alarming details:

• The team tasked with vetting fraudulent ads had a guideline not to impact more than 0.15% of Meta’s revenue — roughly US$135 million of US$90 billion in H1 2025.
• Reporting fraudulent ads is largely pointless: in 2023, of the 100k+ valid reports filed weekly, 96% were ignored or incorrectly rejected.
• Tolerance for scammy advertisers is huge: small actors can be caught up to eight times before being banned; for large advertisers, not even 500 violations prompt action.
• Automated moderation systems only block ads when they reach 95% certainty of fraud. At lower certainty levels, Meta charges to run those ads (in other words: it profits more).
• Meta estimates fines for leniency toward fraudulent ads would be smaller than the revenue those ads generate. Crime pays — for the intermediary too.

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Meanwhile, a Projeto Brief study in Brazil, based on Meta’s ad library, found that more than half (52%) of ads mentioning “loan,” shown in September 2025, exhibited signs of fraud. Of those, 9% were confirmed scams.

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The court ruling (*.pdf) from Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) that declares Article 19 of the Marco Civil da Internet partially unconstitutional, published last Wednesday (5), assigns presumed liability to platforms for damages arising from third‑party illicit content that has been promoted (paid). In his opinion, Justice Luiz Fux argued:

In these cases, I believe it is necessary to recognize the possibility of civil liability of application‑provider companies in all situations where there is harm to third parties’ individual and collective rights. The direct profit derived from the advertising service provided by digital platforms justifies imposing greater verification burdens on them for content.

The timing (or coincidence) of Reuters’s explosive report is notable. I’m curious how — and whether — it will resonate here.