Maddy Varner Security Apr 21, 2026 12:24 PM Meta Is Sued Over Scam Ads on Facebook and Instagram A lawsuit from the Consumer Federation of America accuses Meta of misleading consumers about its efforts to combat scams advertisements on its platforms. Photograph: Tom Williams/Getty Images Save this story Save this story On Tuesday, the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging that the way the social networking giant handles scammers on its platforms violates Washington, DC’s consumer protection laws. While many online scams involve direct outreach to victims by scammers (who are often themselves human trafficking victims trapped in scam compounds ), CFA’s lawsuit focuses on fraudulent advertising that CFA alleges Meta profited from and allowed to "proliferate on its platforms,” despite publicly promising that it takes cracking down on fraud and scams seriously. In its complaint, CFA points to ads found in Meta’s ads library that CFA claims are types of well-known scams, including several that appear to target people by their birth year and tout $1,400 checks, as well as others that advertise free government iPhones. Speaking with WIRED, Ben Winters, CFA’s director of AI and data privacy, says others can find more dubious ads just by searching Meta’s ad library using key words like “free phone” and “stimulus check.” WIRED’s quick perusal of the ads library on Monday shows more live ads for “secret tax checks” that lead to a website that promises to reveal “Wall Street’s recession-proof investing strategy.” Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CFA is seeking to recover damages and what it says are illegal profits from Meta, in addition to business reforms. Winters says that there’s more to be done to take down repeat violators and scrutinize ads that promise things like free government programs that don’t exist before they’re put in front of consumers. Meta has faced particular scrutiny because Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—which are all owned by Meta—are among the most widely used online platforms by Americans, according to a recent Pew Research Center report . In late 2025, Reuters reported on a set of internal Meta documents that detailed how the company dealt with fraudulent and prohibited user activity, including a May 2025 presentation that estimated that its platforms were involved with a third of all successful scams in the US. Another presentation cited by Reuters alleged that an internal Meta review found it “is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google.” One Meta document from 2024 that Reuters cited estimated that the company would earn 10.1 percent of its revenue that year—around $16 billion—from ads that were actually scams or other types of prohibited content. To put that figure in perspective, the FBI estimated that in 2024, Americans lost $16 billion from all internet crimes. At the time, a Meta spokesperson called the estimate “rough and overly inclusive” and said that the set of documents Reuters reported on “distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams” and that the actual revenue was lower, but declined to tell Reuters by how much. In June 2025, a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general urged Meta to crack down on Facebook ads that led consumers to WhatsApp groups that were used for carrying out investment scams. The letter, which was signed by New York AG Letiticia James, said that Meta’s solutions were not working and that investigators in New York kept seeing scam advertisements months after submitting reports to Meta. Since then, the US Virgin Islands attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit against Meta that, among other things, alleged that the company not only failed to crack down on scam advertising but charged advertisers higher rates to run ads flagged as likely to be fraudulent. That lawsuit is ongoing. Though the federal government and many states have similar consumer protection laws as the DC law that CFA alleges Meta violated, Winters says he’s not holding his breath for the federal government to take action, and while he appreciates the work of state attorneys general, he believes consumers need relief now. “We appreciate their work and think it's absolutely critical, but we can't wait for them to act when we haven't seen them able to act as quickly as we need to,” Winters says. “This is why nonprofits and civil society exist in the idealized world, right? To fill in gaps where there are gaps.” Comments Back to top You Might Also Like In your inbox: Will Knight's AI Lab explores advances in AI Meta’s facial recognition glasses could arm sexual predators Big Story: The snake bros getting bitten by their lethal pets The deepfake nudes crisis in schools is worse than you thought Listen: Silicon Valley is spending millions to stop one of its own Maddy Varner is a senior reporter for WIRED. In the past, she was an investigative data journalist at The Markup, where she brought numbers to stories about labor, education and politics. Before The Markup, she was a researcher at ProPublica, where she was on a team that won a Loeb ... Read More Senior Writer, Investigations Topics Meta Facebook Instagram WhatsApp lawsuits Crime scams Advertising Read More Meta Is Warned That Facial Recognition Glasses Will Arm Sexual Predators More than 70 organizations, including the ACLU, EPIC, and Fight for the Future, say the AI smart glasses feature would endanger abuse victims, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people. Dell Cameron China Is Cracking Down on Scams. Just Not the Ones Hitting Americans As Beijing clamps down on fraud at home, researchers say crime syndicates are shifting their focus to victims elsewhere. Lily Hay Newman Nobody Knows How to File Taxes on Prediction Market Wins Americans flocked to prediction markets last year. Now, it’s time to pay taxes on winnings. How do you do that? Great question. Kate Knibbs A $20 Billion Crypto Scam Market Faces a New Government Crackdown The Telegram-based Xinbi Guarantee black market sells services that help prop up scam operations. British officials just hit the highly lucrative marketplace with sweeping sanctions. Matt Burgess The FBI Didn’t Answer Texts From Minnesota Investigators for Days After Renee Good’s Killing Messages sent to the FBI by an investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension went ignored for at least two days, per records obtained by WIRED. Caroline Haskins Republican Mutiny Sinks Trump's Push to Extend Warrantless Surveillance A post-midnight revolt in the House sank the White House's efforts to extend Section 702—a spy program the FBI has used to look into members of Congress, protesters, and political donors. Dell Cameron Your Body Is Betraying Your Right to Privacy Attachment to smart devices and biometric surveillance leaves Americans more vulnerable to police searches than ever. Left unchecked it will only get worse. Andrew Guthrie Ferguson It Takes 2 Minutes to Hack the EU’s New Age-Verification App Plus: Major data breaches at a gym chain and hotel giant, a disruptive DDoS attack against Bluesky, dubious ICE hires, and more. Dell Cameron In a Big Reversal, Zohran Mamdani Tells NYC Agencies They Can Use TikTok The city will allow agencies to return to TikTok, but with strict new device and security rules. Makena Kelly Telegram Is Still Hosting a Sanctioned $21 Billion Crypto Scammer Black Market The UK designated Xinbi Guarantee as an enabler of crypto scammers and human trafficking weeks ago. Telegram is still hosting it in plain sight. Andy Greenberg Congress Turns Up Pressure on DHS Over Palantir’s Role in Immigration Crackdown Democrats are demanding answers about Palantir and other surveillance firms powering Trump’s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda. Caroline Haskins Why ICE Is Allowed to Impersonate Law Enforcement “There's no accountability,” one expert tells WIRED of ICE’s ability to lie to the public. "The consequence of this is that it’s going to be a systemic harm across all law enforcement.” Vittoria Elliott