Stop Platform Scams

Meta is knowingly profiting off scams

It’s happening every time you scroll Facebook: a ‘miracle cure’ for chronic disease, a crypto tip that looks like it’s from Elon Musk, or even a “government grant” that will help you fix up your house.

A new report has revealed that in 2024, 10% of Meta’s revenue – a whopping $16 billion – came from ads promoting scams. Meta’s platforms have become a playground for predators and scammers alike, and while ordinary people are scammed out of their life savings, Zuckerberg is getting rich from it.

Meta isn’t just failing to stop the scams, it is effectively partnering with the scammers by offering a platform, ad tech, and various tools that enable scammers to defraud users. Meta execs have known about the rampant fraud but have done little to address it -- choosing to keep profiting off people’s misery instead of stopping the abuse.

Now, digital rights and consumer protection groups are banding together to take on Meta’s scam-machine, and they have 3 key demands:

Ordinary people are paying the price

The stories are heartbreaking. A 65-year-old woman lost her 401k retirement fund from a ‘pump and dump’ investment scam after clicking on a Facebook ad. A disabled veteran in Iowa reportedly lost $20,000 from a government impersonation scam after receiving an unsolicited friend request on Facebook, and an 82-year-old father and grandfather committed suicide after losing his life savings from a romance scam that originated on Facebook.

These aren’t edge-cases – many of us have either been scammed ourselves, or know someone who has been scammed through Meta. And with AI, it’s getting harder to tell what’s real and what’s fake!

But Meta can solve this problem. As one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world, it has the resources needed to put an end to its scam crisis - but Zuckerberg won’t budge unless he sees that people all over the world are demanding action.

Click here to read the full letter to Meta.

GET INVOLVED

If you or a loved one has been scammed on Meta, click here to tell us your story.

Join our movement by signing the Ekō hosted petition below:

To: META

Stop allowing and profiting off scams. From real-time monitoring, pro-active labeling, independent audits, and stronger cooperation with regulators, Meta must take all necessary measures to protect its users from being scammed on its platforms.