Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show (5.Viewing)

Reuters published an investigation showing that internal Meta documents projected about 10% of Meta’s 2024 revenue — roughly $16 billion — came from ads linked to scams or banned products. These ads included investment fraud, fake crypto platforms, illegal online casinos, and unapproved medical treatments.

The leak also revealed that Meta kept an internal “Scammiest Scammer” list, highlighting the worst offenders on the platform. Despite being flagged, many of these advertisers continued running campaigns. Some “High Value Accounts” reportedly accumulated hundreds of strikes — in one case more than 500 — before finally being shut down.

According to the documents, Meta’s ad-screening system only bans advertisers when it is 95% certain they are committing fraud. If the system is less certain, Meta still allows the ads to run but charges the advertiser higher rates. This meant that many of the most aggressive scam networks were able to continue advertising as long as they paid the penalty.

The documents also show Meta’s internal view of regulatory risk. Meta estimated potential fines at around $1 billion, but this was considered small compared to what the company earned from high-risk scam ads — roughly $3.5 billion every six months, according to one internal figure. The internal guidance reportedly emphasized avoiding enforcement actions that would result in major revenue losses unless regulators forced the issue.

Meta disputes the characterization, saying the figures are “rough and overly inclusive,” and insists it has removed large amounts of scam content. But the leaked documents point to an ongoing conflict between Meta’s financial incentives and its ability — or willingness — to clamp down on fraudulent advertisers.

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This is a major problem with the world right now - laws protect the rich and powerful and are usually in the form of fines and other financial penalties. But the wealthy can often make far more money engaging in fraudulent and illegal behavior, and then just pay the fines out of the profits.

This process is rife in Canada right now, as our laws are still in the 60's and based on a law-abiding citizenship, which is clearly way out of date with what the 'New Canada' is in 2025. Land developers are the worst and they're cutting all kinds of corners, breaking safety laws, and not adhering to local zoning bylaws, and then just pay the fine and bank their a massive profit. Breaking bylaws and payin gfines are just the "cost of doing fraudulent business", and in no way are these actual laws that are actively enforced. Otherwise, the city or township would just halt the construction.

For example, if a builder buy a tract of land and the city bylaw says that only X houses can go on it (due to spacing and fire laws), the roads need to be X feet wide, and there needs to be Y space for parks and other recreational activities, then the development team immediately works out if adding extra houses (or increasing the max house size per lot), cutting down on park space and shaving some footage off of streets and sidewalks would yield a profit compared to the city fines it would entail.

Most times it does and houses are getting crushed closer and closer together in new developments, while leaving less and less 'open space' for occupants. But hey, at least the city gets another big fat check from fining the developers, and I guess that's now part of their budget plan.

This is also a common tactic with condo or townhouse developments, which require X parking spots per unit as a bylaw, and the developer then builds only half the spots needed and pays a fine. A condo building development did this exact thing in the area we used to live in, and all the traffic and parking concerns expressed by residents in those absolutely-useless 'town hall meetings" turned out to be 2-3X worse due to the builder's fraudulent behavior. But I guess it's all okay since he paid the fine. Right?

I read that recently a developer bought a massive designated heritage property (which was cheap because a 'heritage' designation limits what you can (supposedly) do with it) then in the dead of night drove bulldozers in and totally razed the property in order to develop the land. The area was aghast that someone would do something so brazen as this and promised a "significant fine", to which the new owner just laughed and paid off. But the heritage buildings were totally destroyed, never to be seen again.

It's extremely sad to see the 'New Canada" looking at our country, our laws and our history as something to abuse, circumvent and destroy. As no one actually enforces laws in Canada (and our "fine them" strategy seems to be working out just great), it's clear the structure of our entire country has been built on an extreme level of trust that our population is law-abiding and respectful.

Without order, obedience and respect for our laws, combined with the almost total lack of enforcement in Canada, you have chaos. And this is a big reason why the cracks in our country's foundation are becoming more and more apparent.

DomainRecap said:

I read that recently a developer bought a massive designated heritage property (which was cheap because a 'heritage' designation limits what you can (supposedly) do with it) then in the dead of night drove bulldozers in and totally razed the property in order to develop the land. The area was aghast that someone would do something so brazen as this and promised a "significant fine", to which the new owner just laughed and paid off. But the heritage buildings were totally destroyed, never to be seen again.

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This house is in my town and was built in the 1830s. The maximum fine under the Ontario Heritage Act is $1 million, which is chump change considering it’s in one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Canada. The developer is a convicted sex offender, so he’s a great guy, no doubt. Our town is home to some of the best historical restoration companies. They should have to rebuild it from the rubble. He knew what he was doing when he purchased that lot.

"If the penalty is a fine, it's legal for the rich"

mcm said:

The maximum fine under the Ontario Heritage Act is $1 million, which is chump change considering it’s in one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Canada.

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Like I said, our laws are based in the 1960's, and assume a primarily law-abiding citizenry, and remain that way to benefit the wealthy and make them even wealthier. This creates a Wild West environment where absolutely anything goes if you have enough money to pay the fines.

Obviously if the law was intended to actually save historical buildings and property, the maximum fine would be the 'current value of the property + future development as if it were not a heritage site'. But then no rich SOBs would be able to blatantly abuse the law to get richer, so that would never pass.