Meta leaked documents show it prioritizes profit over tackling scams
Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) internally projected it would earn about $16 billion last year from ads linked to scams and banned goods—nearly 1 in 10 dollars of its total revenue.
Leaked internal documents also show Meta allowed around 15 billion "higher risk" scam ads to run every single day.
Meta's ad strategy
Instead of banning sketchy advertisers right away, Meta only blocks them when it's super sure—like 95% certain—they're running scams.
Otherwise, it just charges these accounts more for ads.
Plus, users who click on scam ads are likely to see even more scammy content due to Meta's ad-personalization system.
Regulators in the US are investigating, and UK authorities have highlighted Meta's role in scam losses, but so far, Meta's efforts to crack down are pretty limited.
Putting profits before stricter rules
The leaks reveal Meta sets limits on how much money it's willing to lose by removing scam ads—basically putting profits before stricter rules.
Sandeep Abraham, a former fraud investigator at Meta, summed it up: "If regulators wouldn't tolerate banks profiting from fraud, they shouldn't tolerate it in tech."
Abraham now runs a fraud prevention consultancy
Abraham now runs a fraud prevention consultancy called Risky Business Solutions and has years of experience policing online platforms.
His perspective adds weight to growing concerns about how big tech handles digital scams.