Leaked Documents Reveal Meta's Multi-Billion Dollar Revenue from Scam Advertisements: Report

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According to a report by Reuters, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, anticipated that approximately 10% of its 2024 revenue—around $16 billion—would be generated from advertisements promoting scams and prohibited products.

The company reportedly struggled to detect and prevent a massive influx of ads that potentially exposed billions of users to fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illicit online gambling platforms, and banned medical items, as detailed in Reuters’ findings.

A December 2024 document revealed by the news agency suggested that Meta presented users with an average of 15 billion “higher risk” scam ads daily. Another document from the same period indicated that the company annually generated about $7 billion from such advertising.

Further documents highlighted Meta’s delayed response in addressing the issue, even after identifying the most egregious offenders, Reuters reported. Some major advertisers, referred to internally as “High Value Accounts,” reportedly amassed over 500 infractions without facing account suspension.

Reuters also found that users who clicked on scam ads were more likely to see additional ones because of Meta’s ad-personalization system, which tries to deliver ads based on a user’s interests.

A Meta spokesperson told NewsNation the 10% revenue projection from policy-violating ads cited in the report was “rough and overly-inclusive,” not a “definitive or final figure.”

The spokesperson said the company aggressively fights fraud and scams, noting that over the last 15 months, reports from users about scam ads have declined by more than 50%.

“Unfortunately, the leaked documents present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams by focusing on our efforts to assess the scale of the challenge, not the full range of actions we have taken to address the problem,” the spokesperson said.

Meta reported more than $50 billion in ad revenue last quarter — up 26% year over year — bringing its total so far this year to $138 billion.