Meta made tens of millions off scam ads that ripped off seniors

Meta made millions off of scam ads specifically targeting seniors, according to a new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

The tech watchdog found that Meta was failing to curb malicious Medicare-related advertisements, which earned the platform $14.3 million in ad revenue in 2025. Such advertisements included false promises of "free benefits" for Medicare recipients, AI-generated celebrity deepfakes, and fake enrollment deadlines. They predominantly targeted Facebook users aged 65 or older, primarily in Texas and Florida.

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CCDH looked at 90,000 ads in Meta's ad library taken out by 30 known Medicare scammers, resulting in 215 million impressions across Facebook. According to the company, this figure is "six times the reach of all previous years on record combined." Scammer accounts had, on average, 151 ads removed by Meta. According to CCDH, "By the time those ads were removed, they had already generated 72 million impressions and earned Meta $3.7 million. Removed ads were replaced with near identical copies. Disabled accounts launched new ones."

"Scammers are determined criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics to defraud people and evade detection on our platforms and across the internet," Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement to NBC News.

"We aggressively fight scams on and off our platforms because they’re not good for us or the people and businesses that rely on our services. We removed over 159 million scam ads last year alone — 92 percent of which we took down before anyone reported them — launched new tools to protect people, and partnered with law enforcement around the globe to disrupt these criminals."

Over the last year, Americans have reported losing billions to fake scam ads across the larger internet. The FTC reported that 30 percent of Americans who fell victim to financial scams were targeted on social media, resulting in $2.1 billion in losses in 2025.

A recent report by Reuters found that Meta was earning around $7 billion in annualized revenue from scam ads, often referred to as "high risk" advertising. Internal documents showed the company expected to earn 10 percent of its 2024 ad revenue — or $16 billion — from "ads for scams and banned goods."

A class-action lawsuit based on the Reuters investigation was filed against Meta in April. The complaint alleges Meta intentionally charged "high risk" advertisers more money, and thus earned more profit, while failing to address user fraud reports and relying on ineffectual scam-fighting tools.

"These allegations misrepresent the reality of our work and we will fight them," Meta said in a statement to Mashable at the time.