Meta estimates that it earns 10% of its revenue from scams, report says

A recent report reveals that Meta anticipates up to 10% of its total revenue—approximately $16 billion—could stem from deceptive advertisements across its platforms. Documents reviewed by Reuters indicate that for the past three years, the company has struggled to safeguard users from ads promoting illicit gambling, dubious investment schemes, and prohibited medical products. These misleading advertisements often claim to provide nonexistent products or services, targeting unsuspecting users for financial gain. While Meta has implemented a system designed to identify potentially fraudulent campaigns, it typically only suspends an advertiser's account if there is a 95% certainty of wrongdoing. In cases where this threshold isn't met, the company opts to raise advertising costs for suspicious advertisers, inadvertently encouraging them to continue their campaigns, which ultimately benefits Meta financially. TechCrunch reached out to Meta for a response but did not receive a reply prior to publishing. According to Andy Stone, a spokesperson for the company, these documents present a biased perspective that misrepresents Meta's efforts against fraud. Stone emphasized that in the last year and a half, Meta has achieved a 58% reduction in user reports concerning scam ads and has taken down over 134 million deceptive ads from its platforms.