Voice of the Emirates – Leaked internal documents published by Reuters have revealed a dark side to Meta Platforms’ (Facebook and Instagram) profit-making machine. These documents indicate that the company expects to generate billions of dollars from fraudulent, high-risk advertising.
The company estimates that its revenue coming from these advertisements, which include investment scams, illegal casinos and prohibited medical products, will reach 10.1% of total revenue by 2024. This equates to approximately US$16 billion.
15 billion “high-risk” fraudulent ads daily
Another point in the internal report highlights the scale of the problem: nearly 15 billion “high-risk” fraudulent ads are served on Meta platforms daily.
According to the documents, Meta does not immediately block suspicious ads if the certainty that the advertiser is a fraud is less than 95%. In such cases, the company charges the suspected advertiser a higher advertising rate. This essentially incentivizes them to pay more and reduces the risk of declining company revenue.
In parallel, Meta’s ad personalization system identifies users who are likely to click on these ads and then shows them more of them.
Meta admits involvement in the “global fraud economy”
Internal company documents acknowledge that Meta platforms are an integral part of the global fraud economy. A company presentation in May 2025 stated that its platforms were involved in approximately one-third of successful fraud operations in the United States.
The report also noted that “it is easier to report a fraud on Meta platforms compared to Google LLC.”
Despite acknowledging the problem, company spokesman Andy Stone indicated that the $16 billion estimate was “very rough and broad,” emphasizing that the company is working “intensively” to address fraud and scams.
However, an internal document from the first half of 2025 revealed that the detection team responsible for malicious ads had limited authority. It could not take any action that would cost Meta more than 0.15% of its total revenue.
