Rhode Island sues Meta over alleged profits from scam ads

> A Meta spokesperson called the state’s claims “unfounded,” noting that the company regularly partners with law enforcement to disrupt scam networks.

UnFoUnDeD!

> 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.

> 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.

> At the same time, the documents indicate that Meta's own research suggests its products have become a pillar of the global fraud economy. A May 2025 presentation by its safety staff estimated that the company's platforms were involved in a third of all successful scams in the US Meta also acknowledged in other internal documents that some of its main competitors were doing a better job at weeding out fraud on their platforms.

https://www.tbsnews.net/world/meta-earning-fortune-deluge-fr...