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*ORGANISIERTE KRIMINALIT脛T BEI #META?!?!
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馃憠 #Meta geht davon aus, dass 10 % seiner Einnahmen im Jahr 2024 aus Anzeigen f眉r Betrugsmaschen und verbotene Waren stammen
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馃憠...den Nutzern t盲glich 15 Milliarden betr眉gerische Anzeigen zeigen...馃憟
#BUNDESKRIMINALAMT: "#OrganisierteKriminalit盲t ist die von #Gewinn- oder #Machtstreben bestimmte planm盲脽ige Begehung von #Straftaten, die einzeln oder in ihrer Gesamtheit von erheblicher Bedeutung sind,...
The crux of the enshittification hypothesis is that companies deliberately degrade their products and services to benefit themselves at your expense *because they can*. An enshittogenic policy environment that rewards cheating, spying and monopolization will inevitably give rise to cheating, spying monopolists:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/10/say-their-names/#object-permanence
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The crux of the enshittification hypothesis is that companies deliberately degrade their products and services to benefit themselves at your expense *because they can*. An enshittogenic policy environment that rewards cheating, spying and monopolization will inevitably give rise to cheating, spying monopolists:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/10/say-their-names/#object-permanence
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You couldn't ask for a better example than Reuters' Facebook Fraud Files. The topline description hardly does this scandal justice. Meta's depravity and greed in the face of truly horrifying fraud and scams on its platform is breathtaking.
Here's some details: first, the company's own figures estimate that they are delivering *15 billion scam ads every single day*, which generate *$7 billion in revenue every year*.
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Despite its own automatic systems flagging the advertisers behind these scams, Meta does not terminate their account - rather, it *charges them more money* as a "disincentive." In other words, fraudulent ads are more profitable for Meta than non-scam ads.
Meta's own internal memos also acknowledge that they help scammers automatically target their most vulnerable users: if a user clicks on a scam, the automated ad-targeting system floods that user's feed with *more* scams.
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The company knows that the global fraud economy is totally dependent on Meta, with *one third of all US scams going through Facebook* (in the UK, the figure is 54% of all "payment-related scam losses"). Meta also concludes that it is uniquely hospitable to scammers, with one internal 2025 memo revealing the company's conclusion that "It is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google."
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Internally, Meta has made plans to reduce the fraud on the platform, but the effort is being slow-walked because the company estimates that most it will ultimately pay in fines worldwide ads up to $1 billion, while it currently books $7 billion/year in revenue from fraud. The memo announcing the anti-fraud effort concludes that scam revenue dwarfs "the cost of any regulatory settlement involving scam ads."
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Internally, Meta has made plans to reduce the fraud on the platform, but the effort is being slow-walked because the company estimates that most it will ultimately pay in fines worldwide ads up to $1 billion, while it currently books $7 billion/year in revenue from fraud. The memo announcing the anti-fraud effort concludes that scam revenue dwarfs "the cost of any regulatory settlement involving scam ads."
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@pluralistic With enough money, a fine just becomes a fee or cost of business
The memo concludes that Meta will not take pro-active measures to fight fraud, and will only fight fraud in response to regulatory action.
Meta's anti-fraud team operates under an internal quota system that limits how many scam ads they are allowed to fight. A Feb 2025 memo states that the anti-fraud team is only allowed to take measures that will reduce ad revenue by 0.15% ($135m) - even though Meta's own estimate is that scam ads generate $7 billion per year for the company.
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The manager in charge of the program warns their underlings that "We have specific revenue guardrails."
What does Meta fraud look like? One example cited by Reuters is the company's discovery of a "six-figure network of accounts" that impersonated US military personnel, who attempted to trick other Meta users sending them money. Reuters also describes "a torrent of fake accounts pretending to be celebrities or represent major consumer brands" in order to steal Meta users' money.
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Another common form of fraud is "sextortion" scams. That's when someone acquires your nude images and threatens to publish them unless you pay them money and/or perform more sexual acts on camera for them. These scams disproportionately target teenagers and have led to children committing suicide:
In 2022, a Meta manager sent a memo complaining about a "lack of investment" in fraud-fighting systems.
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Another common form of fraud is "sextortion" scams. That's when someone acquires your nude images and threatens to publish them unless you pay them money and/or perform more sexual acts on camera for them. These scams disproportionately target teenagers and have led to children committing suicide:
In 2022, a Meta manager sent a memo complaining about a "lack of investment" in fraud-fighting systems.
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You couldn't ask for a better example than Reuters' Facebook Fraud Files. The topline description hardly does this scandal justice. Meta's depravity and greed in the face of truly horrifying fraud and scams on its platform is breathtaking.
Here's some details: first, the company's own figures estimate that they are delivering *15 billion scam ads every single day*, which generate *$7 billion in revenue every year*.
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