I’ve been saying for years that Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is knowingly profiting from fraudulent advertising, including fake investment ads that impersonate trusted financial brands, and now there is proof, according to internal documents revealed by Reuters.
The Reuters exposé shows that Meta internally projected around 10% of its 2024 revenue, roughly $16 billion, came from scam or prohibited ads, including those promoting fraudulent investments, illegal gambling, and counterfeit medical products.
Meta’s own systems reportedly identify 15 billion scam ads every day, yet the company continues to serve and monetise many of them. Documents show Meta even charges suspected scammers a premium to advertise, turning fraud into a deliberate revenue stream.
FCA: “We have no powers over these platforms”.
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are not doing enough – because they can’t!
Lucy Castledine, Director of Consumer Investments, FCA, speaking at the Good Money Guide London Summit in September 2025 said: ” We have no power over these tech companies”.
Castledine explained that the regulator reviews around half a million potential financial promotions each year, with about 20,000 adverts from regulated firms taken down or amended and thousands of alerts issued against unregulated firms.
But, because major tech platforms like Meta are often unresponsive, the FCA now relies on an external agency to issue and chase takedown requests. Castledine stressed that the FCA has no formal powers over these companies, relying instead on persuasion and evidence of consumer harm. She described how scammers quickly reappear using “lifeboat accounts”, duplicate profiles that post identical content within 24 hours of removal, and called on tech platforms to act proactively to identify and remove scam content before consumers see it.
Reuters also reported that the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that Meta’s platforms were involved in over half of all payments-related scam losses in 2023, double the total of all other social media firms combined.
Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Meta for running fraudulent investment promotions.
Despite public statements claiming to “aggressively fight fraud,” the leaked documents reveal a company constrained by “revenue guardrails” that limit how much scam-related income it is willing to sacrifice, just 0.15% of total revenue in early 2025.
The damage being done to legitimate financial brands
The impact of Facebook’s policies is felt not just by scammed users, but also by legitimate financial comparison platforms, whose brands are hijacked to lend credibility to fake investment schemes.
Our exclusive research over the last five years has shown that Meta is homes to the largest financial scams in the UK:
- 2025: Facebook & Instagram are officially the biggest social media networks for financial scammers according to official Police data
- 2024: UK Investors Lose £75 Million To Financial Scams On Social Media
- 2020: Scam Financial Advertising & Promotion Statistics
We’ve been battling fake Facebook ads for years, scams that use our name and credibility to trick consumers into depositing money with unregulated brokers. It’s now clear Facebook knows exactly what’s going on, and is making billions from it. This isn’t a moderation failure, it’s a business model!
Consumer advocates have long warned that Facebook’s algorithm actively amplifies scam content. Once a user clicks on a fraudulent investment ad, they are shown more of the same, creating a feedback loop that traps victims deeper into financial loss.
What’s even worse is that Meta no longer fact-checks content, meaning that Instagram trading scams have gotten worse since 2024.
Our own experiences trying to get fake adverts removed on Meta
Good Money Guide has previously reported multiple instances of fraudulent Facebook and Instagram adverts, including a deepfake AI-generated video of our podcast to promote unregulated investment schemes. Meta refused to accept that the advert was fake and remove it, meaning an additional 30,000 users saw the advert, even after it was reported several times.
See the BBC reporting the Good Money Guide Podcast being cloned and used in a deep fake advert on Facebook below:
- You can see how these Facebook and Instagram scams lead to fake WhatsApp (also owned by Meta) investing groups here: How WhatsApp investing scams work
- In one instance, it took Facebook 1,024 days to remove an advert we reported as a scam…
Despite repeated takedown requests, these fake ads frequently reappear within hours. The new Reuters investigation suggests this may be because Meta’s systems allow known bad actors to continue advertising unless they are 95% “certain” to be scammers. Those with a lower (but still high) risk score are allowed to keep spending, just at higher ad rates.
This means Facebook is not only failing to stop scams that harm consumers and reputations, but is also financially incentivised to let them continue.
Meta cares more about revenue than scams or fines
According to internal presentations reviewed by Reuters, Meta’s finance and safety divisions have known for years that scam ads represent a major revenue source. In one 2025 document, executives explicitly discuss the trade-off between “violating revenue”, income from illegal or deceptive ads, and enforcement costs.
Even when fines are expected, Meta calculated that the revenue from scam ads far outweighs any regulatory penalties. Meta’s internal strategy notes a $3.5 billion half-yearly revenue stream from “high-risk” fraudulent ads, dwarfing the $1 billion in anticipated fines.
What needs to happen next
The revelations raise serious questions about tech platform accountability and the effectiveness of UK regulatory measures such as the Online Fraud Charter, which was meant to force platforms like Facebook to act faster on scam ads.
With internal evidence now confirming that Meta’s profits are directly tied to fraud, there is growing pressure for regulators to impose criminal liability on executives who fail to protect users from known scams.
Until then, financial comparison platforms and legitimate brands like Good Money Guide remain on the frontline, forced to monitor and report fakes themselves, while Facebook continues to profit.
Ultimately, the FCA told us that the only UK body that has the power to fine these social networks is OFCOM. OFCOM needs to regulate social media network advertising in the same way they do broadcast and network television and start issuing serious fines for failure to stop scam adverts.
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as The Sunday Times, BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.
Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.
To contact Richard, please ask a question in our financial discussion forum.
