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"Meta estimates that ten percent of the company’s annual revenue comes from fraudulent ads on its services – amounting to a dizzying 16 billion dollars. – Meta

"Meta estimates that ten percent of the company’s annual revenue comes from fraudulent ads on its services – amounting to a dizzying 16 billion dollars. – Meta is earning billions from consumers being scammed. Even if the company gets fined – a process that takes years – the fines we have seen so far only amount to a fraction of these profits. In other words, Meta has no incentive to solve the problem. Meanwhile, the company doesn’t lift a finger to help its users, whether their profiles are misused in the scam ads, or they fall victim to the scams, Myrstad says. "

nine_zeros 7mo ago
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notachatbot123 7mo ago
Where is that quote sourced?
- llm_nerd 7mo ago
  https://www.forbrukerradet.no/news-in-english/digital-products-and-services-are-getting-worse-but-the-trend-can-be-reversed/#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20Meta%20has,consumers%20and%20digital%20service%20providers: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/news-in-english/digital-produc... You can find the 10% from scam thing all over the place. ala- https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/ https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortu...
Nursie 7mo ago
And somehow they are allowed to continue operating, and we accept them saying "we couldn't possibly actually police all this content! There's just too much of it. We're too large for such concerns!" I really wish the rest of us could turn around and say, to their faces "That sounds like a you problem"
- brador 7mo ago
  It’s like fake products on Amazon. The numbers are jaw dropping, the punishment non existent. If a real store had that much fake stock it would be shut overnight.
darkwater 7mo ago
It should be easy: 10% of revenue from fraudulent ads? Fines amounting to 15% of the total revenue. This way, Meta will be incentivized to invest ~5% of its revenue on getting rid of that 10%.
- alphawhisky 7mo ago
  Yes but also include accountability in the boardroom. If illegal things happen, a human needs to see court, not a company. Let the "risk takers" actually take on risk.
- limagnolia 7mo ago
  The US Postal Service seems to derive upwards of 90% of their revenue (Or at least of the mail I receive) from similar scams. Are they going to have the same fines applied to them?
  - MarkusQ 7mo ago
    Common carrier vs. curated platform?
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 7mo ago
    The US Postal Service doesn't serve the American people, by its own admission. I can find the quote from the Postmaster General if you like, but the gist of it was "the 400 direct mailers are our customers". They are a spam company that has outlived its usefulness, if ever it had any. Don't fine them, dissolve them.
  - woah 7mo ago
    And you can't escape. Facebook is less of a concern because you can just not go to the website and you're good. The US Postal Service is the basis of an entire huge industry devoted to finding you at your physical location to try to scam you.
  - thenewnewguy 7mo ago
    How would you find a government entity? This is just moving money from one government budget to another. The USPS is like this because of the persistent belief that it's not enough for government entities (think USPS, Amtrak, etc) to provide a good service for the citizens - they must also (try to) turn a profit. If we as a society considered it acceptable for the USPS to spend money to ensure everyone in the US had mail access without selling out to corporations to turn a profit, they wouldn't need to have products like EDDM blasting spam to entire zip codes.
limagnolia 7mo ago
From the sources I have seen, that 10% was a projection for 2024, with goals to significantly reduce it in 2025 and 2026 onward. It also includes "banned" goods, which are not necessarily fraudulent nor illegal. I have not seen any data on whether or not Meta has achieved their goals of reducing fraud and banned goods advertising.
- dotandgtfo 7mo ago
  Considering the absolute deluge of politicians and celebrities allegedly promoting financial scams on norwegian Facebook my hunch is absolutely not.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]

nine_zeros 7mo ago

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notachatbot123 7mo ago

Where is that quote sourced?

llm_nerd 7mo ago
https://www.forbrukerradet.no/news-in-english/digital-products-and-services-are-getting-worse-but-the-trend-can-be-reversed/#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20Meta%20has,consumers%20and%20digital%20service%20providers: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/news-in-english/digital-produc... You can find the 10% from scam thing all over the place. ala- https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/ https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortu...

Nursie 7mo ago

And somehow they are allowed to continue operating, and we accept them saying "we couldn't possibly actually police all this content! There's just too much of it. We're too large for such concerns!" I really wish the rest of us could turn around and say, to their faces "That sounds like a you problem"

brador 7mo ago
It’s like fake products on Amazon. The numbers are jaw dropping, the punishment non existent. If a real store had that much fake stock it would be shut overnight.

darkwater 7mo ago

It should be easy: 10% of revenue from fraudulent ads? Fines amounting to 15% of the total revenue. This way, Meta will be incentivized to invest ~5% of its revenue on getting rid of that 10%.

alphawhisky 7mo ago
Yes but also include accountability in the boardroom. If illegal things happen, a human needs to see court, not a company. Let the "risk takers" actually take on risk.
limagnolia 7mo ago
The US Postal Service seems to derive upwards of 90% of their revenue (Or at least of the mail I receive) from similar scams. Are they going to have the same fines applied to them?
- MarkusQ 7mo ago
  Common carrier vs. curated platform?
- NoMoreNicksLeft 7mo ago
  The US Postal Service doesn't serve the American people, by its own admission. I can find the quote from the Postmaster General if you like, but the gist of it was "the 400 direct mailers are our customers". They are a spam company that has outlived its usefulness, if ever it had any. Don't fine them, dissolve them.
- woah 7mo ago
  And you can't escape. Facebook is less of a concern because you can just not go to the website and you're good. The US Postal Service is the basis of an entire huge industry devoted to finding you at your physical location to try to scam you.
- thenewnewguy 7mo ago
  How would you find a government entity? This is just moving money from one government budget to another. The USPS is like this because of the persistent belief that it's not enough for government entities (think USPS, Amtrak, etc) to provide a good service for the citizens - they must also (try to) turn a profit. If we as a society considered it acceptable for the USPS to spend money to ensure everyone in the US had mail access without selling out to corporations to turn a profit, they wouldn't need to have products like EDDM blasting spam to entire zip codes.

limagnolia 7mo ago

From the sources I have seen, that 10% was a projection for 2024, with goals to significantly reduce it in 2025 and 2026 onward. It also includes "banned" goods, which are not necessarily fraudulent nor illegal. I have not seen any data on whether or not Meta has achieved their goals of reducing fraud and banned goods advertising.

dotandgtfo 7mo ago
Considering the absolute deluge of politicians and celebrities allegedly promoting financial scams on norwegian Facebook my hunch is absolutely not.

deleted 7mo ago

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