If you’ve ever spent time on one of Meta’s wonderful internet products (please don’t shadowban us), you’ve probably encountered an ad that’s, to put it simply, a scam. These often feature AI voiceovers selling useless courses or some cheaply dropshipped junk — and that’s if you’re lucky enough to actually receive what you paid for.

These ads are ubiquitous. So it’s safe to assume that Facebook must know that a) they exist, and b) they’re scams. Well, a recent report says that they’re aware of the ads, they make a lot of money from them, and they’re not going to stop running them. Great!

According to a recent report from Reuters, Meta knowingly delivers about 15 billion scam ads every day, generating about $7 billion in annual revenue. The company has a system for detecting these scam ads — however, when a scam is detected, they don’t shut down the scammer’s account. Instead, they impose additional fees on the scammer as a supposed “disincentive.”

As noted by tech critic Cory Doctorow, this means that scams are more profitable for Facebook than actual ads.

Not only that, but internal memos from Meta note that their ad-targeting systems make it more likely that a scammed person will be scammed again. If someone clicks a scam ad, they will be served more scam ads, and thus, become more likely to be scammed again. This happens so much that about one-third of all U.S. payment-related scam losses can be traced back to a Meta product.

Now, you might be thinking, isn’t this illegal? First, if you *are* thinking that — of course you think regulations mean something, you’re 12! But second, the answer to that question is “yes, but Facebook doesn’t care.” In short, Meta has assessed the fine risk for continuing this practice at around $1 billion globally. Given that they make $7 billion in scam-related revenue annually, it just makes more financial sense to keep letting people get scammed on their platform and eat the fines when and if they happen.

So, just be careful about which ads you click online. Except the ones attached to our page — click on those to your heart’s content!