Last year, Meta forecast it would earn $16 billion – or 10% of its revenue – by running scam ads, according to bombshell documents obtained last month by Reuters. Critics say the eye-popping number confirms that fraud has effectively become a core part of the company’s business — especially at Facebook, which boasts more than 3 billon monthly active users.

The documents revealed Meta bans accounts only if its systems flag an at least 95% chance that they are committing fraud — an absurdly high bar that invites fraudsters with minimal policing, critics say. What’s more, the more suspicious the ad buyer, the higher the fees for posting ads — a supposed deterrent to bad behavior which instead amounts to “pay to play,” experts say.

Lawmakers have called on Mark Zuckerberg to face a federal investigation over the scam ads. AP

Erin West, a former California prosecutor who has founded a nonprofit to combat online scams, said the documents prove Meta is turning a blind eye to the fraud because it is a “major moneymaker” for the company.

“To know that Facebook is aware of this and they tolerate it – and in fact, they even command additional fees from the worst offenders – is egregious,” West said. “The practice itself is outrageous, jaw-dropping, unacceptable, but when you think about it story by story, it really becomes horrific.”

SafelyHQ, a fraud reporting platform, has collected more than 50,000 verified complaints from online scam victims. When the reports mention where the victims got scammed, Facebook is cited a whopping 85% of the time, according to data exclusively obtained by The Post.

Other platforms, including Meta-owned Instagram, Google, TikTok, and X account for the remaining 15%.

The reports are only a tiny fraction of the big picture, according to Patrick Quade, the CEO and founder of SafelyHQ. The Federal Trade Commission says most fraud goes unreported, and Quade says just 12% of scam victims who submit reports identify a host site.

Facebook is cited for hosting scam ads more than any other platform. SafelyHQ

“For 50,000 people to find us and independently document their losses implies a victim count in the tens of millions,” Quade told The Post. “This isn’t ‘cherry-picking’—it is the overflow of a systemic failure that Meta’s own documents confirm.”

Brian Kuhn, a 68-year-old California resident, says he was scammed out of $70 while trying to buy classic vinyl records by James Brown, The Dead Kennedys, Bob Dylan and the Buzzcocks from a “going out of business” sale on Facebook. The sale turned out to be a fake, and the records never arrived.

“It felt a little creepy that they seemed to know my taste so well,” Kuhn told The Post. “I somehow blame myself equally, but that doesn’t excuse Facebook from allowing the thieves to prey on people.”

Meta’s scam ad epidemic has drawn attention on Capitol Hill, where US Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have demanded a federal investigation.

“Perversely, Meta reportedly charges higher rates for ads that it suspects might be fraudulent — in effect, imposing a scam tax that provides an additional lucrative revenue stream that it knows is tied to fraud,” the senators wrote in Nov. 22 letter.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the leaked documents “present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams.”

Just a fraction of people who report scams identify where they saw the ad in the first place. SafelyHQ

Stone said Meta’s practice of charging suspected scammers more in its ad auctions have proven effective, with internal tests showing a decline in scam reports as well as a slight decline in ad revenue. The company also recently said it has expanded its advertiser verification efforts.

“We aggressively fight fraud and scams because people on our platforms don’t want this content, legitimate advertisers don’t want it and we don’t want it either,” Stone said in a statement. “Scammers are persistent criminals whose efforts, often driven by ruthless cross-border criminal networks that operate on a global scale, continue to grow in sophistication and complexity.”

Over the last 15 months, the company said reports about scam ads have declined by more than 50%. Meta has removed more than 134 million scam ads this year alone.

The internal documents obtained by Reuters showed Meta researchers have been warning for years about the extent of the company’s ad fraud problem, and how it seemed to be trailing rivals in cracking down.

One May 2025 presentation estimated that Meta was involved in one-third of all successful scams in the US, the report said. In a separate April 2025 review, the company concluded it was “easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google.”

SafelyHQ’s data shows scams are rife all over the country. SafelyHQ

In October, a Delaware-based Facebook user named Betty got scammed by a Facebook ad for Laura Geller cosmetics. She said she was suspicious because the goods were cheap and required PayPal, but decided to buy anyway because the ad featured Laura Geller’s logo and branding.

Instead, she got cheap knockoff products from a Chinese label she didn’t recognize.

“Believe me, that’s all you see are ads,” Betty said. “You like one thing or look at something or you make a comment about one thing and then these ads appear. Obviously, some are fake and you can tell that. Some are really good – they’re fake, but you really can’t tell at first.”

In total, SafelyHQ has compiled more than 5,000 verified reports of scam ads specifically on Facebook and Instagram.

A teenager poses for a photo while holding a smartphone in front of a Facebook logo in this illustration taken September 11, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration REUTERS

“The ‘fox’ isn’t even guarding the hen house – it’s charging a toll for other foxes to walk right in,” Quade said. “This is an epidemic. Meta’s system is algorithmically trapping regular citizens in e-commerce scams, while their policy protects $16 billion in scam revenue. The time for voluntary oversight is over.”

Online watchdog Consumer Reports has also called on the FTC and state attorneys general to clamp down.

The “elephant in the room” is Meta’s reliance on protections offered by Section 230, which protects social media sites from being held liable for third-party content, according to Justin Brookman, Consumer Report’s director of tech policy.

Policy tweaks, such as adding an exception for Section 230 for paid advertising, would force Meta to take action, he argued.

Meta allows suspected scammers to buy ads at a higher rate. AFP via Getty Images

“It would certainly realign the incentives to make Meta care more about all the fraud and scams and illegal activity on their platforms,” said Brookman.

The real fix, according to Quade, won’t come until regulators begin treating high-volume ad gatekeepers like Meta as if they are financial institutions rather than social media companies.

That could include strict “know your consumer” or “know your business” rules requiring Meta to properly vet its advertising partners at its own cost.

“You can’t let the company profiting from the crime be the one in charge of stopping it,” Quade said.

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The MGA has worked with several organisations from Malta to build the tool, which will leave the person taking the assessment anonymous. It provides a questionnaire made up of nine questions, which will then determine the well-being of the gambler taking it.

Our self-assessment tool is now live. Available in English and Maltese, it helps players reflect on their gaming activity and make informed decisions.

Read more here: https://t.co/B1Q6njujdo pic.twitter.com/06ezxZiVIy

— MaltaGamingAuthority (@MaltaGamingAuth) October 7, 2025

According to the MGA, it’ll allow problem gamblers to have a moment of “self-reflection” by encouraging users through its “professional guidance”. That guidance has been put together through the MGA’s collaboration with Sedqa, Caritas Malta, the OASI Foundation, and the Responsible Gaming Foundation.

The self-assessment is “rooted” in the Problem Gambling Severity Index, which is used widely thanks to its “evidence-based” methodology.

MGA launches new tool as gambling rises worldwide

The rise in self-help or other gambling addiction prevention tools coincides with the gambling industry beginning to expand rather rapidly. Gambling revenue in the US, for example, has risen as more states regulate or make it legal, with a definitive rise in sports gambling. Malta, Europe, and the UK have also seen a steady rise as gambling becomes far more available and easier to access.

Last month, in September, the Brazilian watchdog, the Institute of Responsible Gambling (IBJR) launched its own tool to help gamblers determine whether or not an online site is regulated. As we’ve reported before, as gambling becomes more prevalent, so does offshore or illegal gambling, where operators aren’t regulated in countries where they’re not supposed to be operating.

The MGA has been embroiled in similar schemes, with websites like PHLove allegedly providing false regulation assurances on their website.

Featured image: Malta Gaming Authority

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The nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission said Thursday that while New York state nearly doubled its number of millionaire earners from 2010 to 2022, other states blew past it.

California, Florida and Texas all added millionaires at a faster clip — more than tripling their totals.

New York’s share of America’s millionaires has plunged 31% since 2010, draining billions from state coffers. BullRun – stock.adobe.com

That gap translates into real money. If New York had kept pace, the watchdog said, the state and city together would have collected an extra $13 billion in taxes in 2022 alone.

That slide has cost taxpayers dearly. If New York had simply held its ground, the state would have raked in an extra $10.7 billion in 2022 alone — and the city another $2.5 billion.

In 2021, the missed windfall would have topped $15.3 billion, thanks to soaring Wall Street gains.

Instead, New York has fallen from second to fourth in the nation for millionaire households, leapfrogged by Florida and Texas. California remains No. 1, but even high-tax California is adding rich residents at a far faster clip.

Florida quadrupled its millionaire ranks between 2010 and 2022, while Texas and California more than tripled theirs. Meanwhile, New York’s millionaire population merely doubled.

“People choose where to live based on a whole mix of factors,” Andrew Rein, the commission’s president, told The Post.

“Taxes matter, but so do quality of life, affordability, public services, and economic opportunities.”

Half of New York’s 70,000 millionaires live in the city, but their numbers are growing far faster in Florida and Texas. Iona – stock.adobe.com

Millionaires remain the linchpin of New York’s finances. They make up just 1% of taxpayers but generate a staggering 40% of city personal income tax revenue and 44% of the state’s.

In 2022, they contributed $34 billion to state and city coffers, including $28 billion from residents alone.

But their numbers are growing faster elsewhere. In 2010, New York City had as many millionaires as all of Florida. By 2022, Florida had 56% more.

“We see fewer millionaires moving here and more moving out,” Rein told The Post.

“New York just isn’t growing its share of top earners the way competitor states like California, Texas, and Florida are.”

The report warns New York’s “value proposition” has faltered: sky-high taxes, battered quality of life, crime worries, hybrid work and soaring housing costs have dulled the city’s appeal.

“Simply put, New York’s value proposition has not been attractive enough to keep up with millionaire growth nationwide,” the report concluded.

Making matters worse, Gotham now punishes its highest earners with the steepest tax rates in America. A New Yorker making $25 million a year pays 14.776% in state and city income tax, compared to 13.3% in California.

California, Florida and Texas all raced ahead of New York in millionaire growth over the last decade. Citizens Budget Commission

Even those earning $2.2 million pay more in New York than they would on the West Coast.

The findings land just nine weeks before voters in the five boroughs head to the voting stations to case their ballots in an election that has been consumed by concerns about affordability and inequality.

The Citizens Budget Commission’s push to hold onto wealthy New Yorkers echoes the arguments of Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who both say the city can’t afford to drive out its top earners.

“I don’t want to say to billionaires, ‘We don’t want you here,’” Adams said on a recent podcast.

“I know why we need them here: The money we make just on stock transfer taxes and bonuses, that actually impacts our budget.”

New York City’s highest earners now face the steepest personal income tax rate in America at nearly 15%. Bloomberg via Getty Images

Cuomo blasted rival Zohran Mamdani’s plan to slap a new 2% millionaire tax as “class warfare.”

Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, wants to use the money for free child care and free bus rides — and has gone so far as to declare that “billionaires should not exist.”

Rein told The Post that raising taxes could accelerate — and exacerbate — the trend of millionaires preferring other places to live.

“New York State and its localities have the highest taxes and the second-highest spending in the nation,” he said.

“We should be able to hold the line on taxes. Raising them could risk accelerating the trend of our shrinking share.”

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