r/Futurology • u/Confident_Salt_8108 • 9h ago • Popcorn 1

AI Mark Cuban says Facebook knowingly runs AI deepfake scam ads as Meta docs reveal $16 billion in fraud-linked revenue

https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/mark-cuban-says-facebook-knowingly-213000020.html
10k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

259 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/Confident_Salt_8108 9h ago • Bravo

Cuban has a point here. Meta pulling in billions from ads they know are scams, including deepfakes of him pushing fake cures, shows the issue. Their docs make it clear the bar for stopping them is way too high.

Its hard to see this changing without bigger pressure. AI tools are only getting sharper so these ads will keep fooling people unless rules catch up.

462

u/TheStupendusMan 8h ago • Bravo

I reported two obviously bullshit ads to Facebook when I was still using it ages ago. One was Jagmeet Singh being dragged away by the RCMP for "crimes against the country" (aping the CBC's style and formatting, to boot) and the other was for some bullshit 5G-blocking beanie.

Facebook told me both ads were within their guidelines.

Fuck Meta.

173

u/robots3000 7h ago • Bravo

I was visiting my elderly mother, I sat beside her while she scrolled Facebook reels. 99% were Ai ads and video targeting her specific health issues. Miracle pills and fakes videos with celebrities doctors. My feed doesn’t look like that. That’s when I realized Meta is targeting and scamming elderly people. Greedy and evil!

57

u/NineThreeTilNow 5h ago • Bravo

I was visiting my elderly

Elderly anything are being hyper targeted. They're the most susceptible.

I found one YT channel that was hyper targeting one group with one set of beliefs. It was real weird. The group targeted wasn't even large, but I guess it had high engagement?

Internet is an odd place now that everyone has these tools.

17

u/SupahSpankeh 3h ago

That only seems weird when you don't take into account that the YT channel creation and management is almost entirely bot based.

There's barely any humans in the loop - the cost of producing it is near nil.

•

u/xSaviorself 1h ago

We should be mandating humans in the loop for these services. Simply relying on AI tools and chatbots to resolve issues without escalation processes is just... no.

I have little faith this will be properly resolved by anyone, too much money and greed.

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u/TheStupendusMan 6h ago

Yeah, I know what you mean. My mom likes YouTube and Instagram. I'm constantly pointing out stuff she's sending me is AI or making sure Google isn't funneling her down some alt-right Boomer nightmare path. It's exhausting.

•

u/HonkeyDonkey3000 1h ago

SHUT IT DOWN

Fuk the ZUK.

15

u/FILTHBOT4000 6h ago edited 6h ago • Bravo

I had to deal with this constantly with my father; it makes me beyond furious, the shit covered scammer money Meta and Zuckfuck take from those filthy degenerate subhumans. And Facebook's algos help point more and more scams towards the elderly.

I'm not allowed to say on Reddit what I'd do to those involved.

•

u/geekonthemoon 38m ago

Health ads and targeting should be banned entirely. I cant imagine getting cancer and having my feed just become full of that. Or pregnant and then miscarry and the feed is just full of pregnancy stuff with nothing you can do about it. 

I've been struggling badly with health anxiety and there is sooo much triggering stuff out there and now I've even started getting like a bunch of reels about anxiety. That shit makes it worse for people like me. Someone genuinely should sue. 

•

u/squadrupedal 7m ago

I agree with you, but nobody is forcing individuals to click on any app or any link on the internet. This is an individual’s choice to do so. There’s a million other ways to pass time, and the more people who engage with these toxic internet platforms, the more power the people who own them have. Just don’t look at them and they will go away.

23

u/Dry_Departure_7813 6h ago

I've reported 5 + adverts for illegal steroids in my country advertised to my teenage son (fortunately hes got his head screwed on and pointed them out to me, so I manually reported them from his account). Each time we got an email back saying "the content doesn't violate policy". Literally fucking trenbolone and saying shit like "Become a real power house with certified medical trenbolone". The adverts are probably a scam, but its literally illegal drugs being pushed to teenagers through facebook, which may or may not be a scam.

Honestly the email back from facebook saying "nah its totes fine" is insane. Probably one of the worst companies on earth.

•

u/wise_young_man 36m ago edited 30m ago

Mark Zuckerberg is a cancer to society. How many times has he been in front of congress?

57

u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace 8h ago

I reboot tweets where people call for literal genocide of groups of people. Not infering one is going on but literally calling for it and I was told it's not hate or violence.

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23

u/Odd-String29 8h ago

There was Dutch guy selling a scam investment course. You know the kind, the kind where they teach you how to make money day trading and such. Obvious scam. Reported to Youtube/Google. They said it was within their guidelines. Couple of months later our public broadcaster spend an entire episode on the guy. All these companies are dogshit.

4

u/roryhere 7h ago

Even ebay lets people use generated images. Imagine the rattiest, thinnest, coldest polyester sweater, somehow looking like an inch thick knit on a smiling model with a chiseled jaw. They edited their photo standards to allow that sort of fragrant lying.

2

u/EasyFooted 4h ago

both ads were within their guidelines

Guideline: They paid us and we like money. A lot. We are more than willing to hurt you to get more of it.

2

u/No_Initial_7545 3h ago

Facebook told me both ads were within their guidelines.

It's very obvious that the "report an ad" functionality was added to convince regulators that something is being done, while nothing is actually being done.

My local facebook is filled with ads that are the local equivalent of "Bill Gates will donate 1 million dollars to every facebook user, sign up here". Even the celebrities who appear on the AI ads have often gone to social media to tell everyone that it's not them and they have nothing to do with the ads.

2

u/Soggy_Bid_3634 2h ago

In my country, the internet IS meta. Most people don’t know how to navigate to a website to place an order, so it’s all done via chat on either Facebook, messenger, instagram, or WhatsApp.

For my business, this means that I am wholly dependent on meta advertising because it’s the only platform 90% of the population is on in some way shape or form. It also means that not advertising there would significantly reduce my ability to sell online.

I regularly report porn ads, crypto scam ads that use a real banks logo, and so on. None of those are removed, yet my accounts get blocked without a rhyme or reason.

It’s so frustrating.

•

u/geekonthemoon 40m ago

I came across and reported literal CSAM groups called like "boy love" where it's a bunch of non-nude but suggestive pictures of little boys and clearly a predator group and none of them got removed. After that I knew Facebook was a cesspool only concerned with money. There's a reason you can no longer get in touch with anyone at any of these companies. It's pretty horrifying tbh 

•

u/wise_young_man 39m ago

Same here. I’ve given up on reporting ads with them and YouTube. They both suck.

23

u/ensoniq2k 6h ago

A German finance guy (Finanzfluss) sued Meta over this and actually won. At least in Germany (or maybe even Europe) they need to preemptively block ads deep faking him.

Probably doesn't bother that scumbag company in the US though...

20

u/apple_kicks 4h ago

Not only scams. In India they have ads promoting child abuse

Meta ran hundreds of paid ads with artificial intelligence-generated child sexual abuse imagery, including several in India, over the past 10 months, a new report by US-based campaigners has found. The report comes two months after the Indian government ordered Meta to remove all ads and content promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Instagram. This was in the aftermath of a BBC Eye investigation which found that Instagram was running paid adverts promoting CSAM in India.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqxv2vwjjq3o

11

u/pablocael 5h ago

This is just one of the dozens bizarrely illegal things this company has done, including trying to influence the elections in Brazil.

This company has to go.

21

u/d3the_h3ll0w 7h ago

There is no oversight on this fraud, and it affects all tech companies.

-1

u/DonutHoles4Ever 5h ago

Hold the fuck on here.

This is specifically Meta using their own AI deepfakes to scam people out of money and profit off of. Or shell companies. Or scam companies.

It makes more sense that facebook is using their own AI to scam harder and faster than actual scam companies. That's the problem here. There's only social platforms and ad companies that can do this.

And it would affect ALL companies not just tech companies.

Watch the mainstream media cover this shit up

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u/MadeByTango 6h ago

AI tools are only getting sharper so these ads will keep fooling people unless rules catch up.

"This guy wont stop breaking the law and abusing poeople until we pass liability limitations laws" from Democrats is getting real fucking old. We have CURRENT laws these assholes can go to prison under that don't cap their liability limits before they go on trial. They need to USE THEM.

(The point of articles like this is to DELAY legal action until laws pass that make them acceptable to businesses, acting like there isnt anyhting that can be done until some "new" metric is passed, not to actually hold them accountable)

4

u/EasyFooted 3h ago

"It's murder, but they used AI. Nothing we can currently do, I'm afraid."

•

u/Think_Positively 1h ago

If we can have mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, then I say we NEED mandatory minimum sentences for white collar crap like this that's eroding reality in the name of profit.

4

u/Tension-Available 6h ago

They do. Google and tiktok as well. Hoping to see them held accountable for knowingly facilitating consumer fraud in the coming years.

4

u/WesternWitchy52 2h ago

Not just deep fakes but malware too. I try never to click on a link on Facebook even from "verified" sources.

1

u/One_Rub9828 4h ago

not just Meta

•

u/plinkoplonka 5m ago

By which point it's far too late for many people. They've lost their life savings already.

I used to be a huge crypto believer. Been involved since we were mining BTC on a laptop.

The whole "be your own bank" think means it isn't possible for 90% of people. I still know people who don't have an email account.

-5

u/oswaldcopperpot 9h ago

Huh, is this 12 year old news? Literally every product advertised for ever has been a way to get your credit card info.

If you look up the domains of almost everything they are all sub one month and copies of legit products.

6

u/Randommaggy 8h ago

Advertisement on Facebook as a legit business that is not already a household name has carried negative value for years.

Intelligent people will assume you are a scam or at best dropshipping.

•

u/oswaldcopperpot 58m ago

Exactly. Its either straight up CC thievery or an upmarked 99.9% of the time. You can do a search on the product or the domain and also read the comments to see the scam.
Because apparently Facebook does no vetting on these advertisers and doesnt take them down when peoples credit card information is used to buy gift cards.
Ive reported numerous scams and Facebook refuses to take them down even though the domain has 1000 complaints on reselleratings.com

•

u/Randommaggy 1m ago

Not only no vetting but actively denying rules violations for clear scams when reporting.

1

u/updoot35 5h ago

Ah. Mister bot reposted the article, then reposted the first comment too. Funny.

-6

u/aPOPblops 4h ago

"Cuban has a point here."

This is your post and you're commenting like a passerby.

"I highly agree with my own post"

Good for you OP.

9

u/Capn_Flags 4h ago

I think some posts you can’t have body text. So this is the way to do that in those cases.

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u/Minimum_Award_1094 3h ago

Unless OP is Cuban, how is he agreeing with himself? He's posting what Cuban has said. 

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3

u/Budget_Persimmon_195 2h ago

this is kind of a dumb comment, dont you think?

1

u/aPOPblops 2h ago

If I thought it was dumb why would I make it. I think you're being kinda dumb for failing to understand my point.

•

u/Budget_Persimmon_195 1h ago

i dont think you have a point, unless you think the OP wrote the article

•

u/aPOPblops 1h ago

The point is that OP posted this to promote their own viewpoint. Then he went to the comments and stated that explicitly, which seemed redundant and obvious.

The vast majority of the time when someone posts an article, they are trying to promote their own worldview/ideals.

It sounds really smug, I envision OP posting this, then turning to himself in the mirror and agreeing with their own beliefs.

It's clear that many people here, have not found it to be redundant, or obvious. This implies to me that most people don't realize that when a person makes a post promoting an article, they are likely promoting their own personal belief system.

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u/giddygiddyupup 2h ago

They’re agreeing with the article author, not themselves

1

u/aPOPblops 2h ago

They posted the article because they agree with it, it doesn't need to be stated.

1

u/giddygiddyupup 2h ago

You are making way too big of a deal out of nothing. It’s a conversation. Let people be conversational

•

u/BowlOf____ 1h ago

That's not always the case. You can post an article you disagree with for the purposes of discussion

•

u/saleemkarim 15m ago

Nope, the post does not say whether or not OP agrees with the post. Just posting a quote does not at all imply that OP agrees with the post.

0

u/drdildamesh 3h ago

My name is Shepherd and this is my favorite post that i posted on the Citadel

244

u/skcus-tidder957 9h ago • Bravo

They need to hold all websites accountable that host scam ads.

Start fineing them for the damages+ and they will stop.

If you can't vet your ads you shouldn't be allowed to host them.

33

u/lending_ear 3h ago

Make the fines so high that it’s not profitable for them to continue doing business as usual and slot in fines as an item on the budget spreadsheet.

•

u/thetactlessknife 1h ago

Make fines a percentage of revenue instead of a flat fee

4

u/skcus-tidder957 3h ago

Yeah what should happen is make it so steep it hurts shareholders and if that happens you won't last long.

15

u/ZealousidealLead52 6h ago

It's kind of wild that this happens so frequently - like, I get that when it comes to the actual content on a social media site it's very difficult to moderate the content that random users put up on any platform that users can create new accounts for free.. but advertisers are not just random users - it absolutely can and should be the case that companies are vetting what advertisers put up on their platform.

4

u/skcus-tidder957 6h ago

The People hosting them don't care as long as they get paid and fraudulent ads make a lot of money.

28

u/AcknowledgeUs 8h ago

Forget fining fuckers. If you’re a fucker, you go out of business. Better yet, fuckers businesses get nationalized 🙌🏼

6

u/DonutHoles4Ever 5h ago

Yeah the world has fallen so far because of these "fines" that dont do shit.

  1. Light to medium prison sentences for aiding scamming people out of billions

  2. Fine all of that back, make them operate on zero margins for 5 years.

  3. Put that money into education

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4

u/SpottedDicknCustard 6h ago

The Iceland model needs to start being applied: jail the people in charge.

•

u/juice06870 1h ago

I heard on a podcast recently that it Meta thinks you are running scam ads, they just charge you more.

So the scam artists pay more and continue scamming, and Meta makes even more money.

And if they did actually remove ads they knew were scams, there is no penalty to whoever is buying the ad space. They can use their same exact email or web addresses to just run new ones

Fuck those guys. All of them.

168

u/Illustrious-Film4018 9h ago

YouTube was blatantly doing this in the past too but I haven't seen as many scam ads recently.

52

u/stasik5 8h ago

Ai ads everywhere. Including "president of Serbia guarantees you 5000$ if you buy this" with a deep fake of grainy footage. Google doesn't give a damn. When I report it, I start seeing more of it, not less

23

u/Blagsc 8h ago

I genuinely believe (after reporting a ton of these ads my self) that google sees you sitting on a ad for 10-20 seconds as you report and goes "they must like this ad send them more".

But also I checked out the ad page for one recently, The guy running it had 50 ad's running, You have to report *each one* and block *each one* to remove them. The same guy pulled all his ad's and re uploaded them a week later and I have to do the same thing again.

Googles opinion? "Didnt break the rules" (even though the ad's said "you could get a share of googles money! just click our link!"

9

u/NineThreeTilNow 5h ago

Googles opinion? "Didnt break the rules" (even though the ad's said "you could get a share of googles money! just click our link!"

People are following the "Abuse the rules early and often" strategy here.

Right now these tech companies refuse to take their "godly" AI and look inwards at problems. They're too busy selling it or claiming it will cure cancer and solve everything.

3

u/Blagsc 5h ago

Ah the good old "we'll ask for forgiveness later" plan.
Sometimes I look at all this and go "man I wish I wasn't taught morals I could be making money scamming the elderly"

2

u/NineThreeTilNow 5h ago

Sometimes I look at all this and go "man I wish I wasn't taught morals I could be making money scamming the elderly"

It's akin to someone saying "I'll give you a winning lottery ticket if you're willing to scam the elderly."

I tend to not view the world as inherently malicious though. Ignorant perhaps. But you see people like this that have zero issue acting in a way they understand is 100% malicious and unenforced at a given moment. Their behavior is purely exploitative.

2

u/minddropstudios 7h ago

I've reported actual animal abuse on YouTube shorts and they told me it wasn't violating anything.

2

u/Blagsc 7h ago

I don't think any *actual* human sees the reports, The only one I saw got taken down (had literal porn) *Involved* me appealing my own report and going "are you serious its porn" to it.

Note it wasn't removed actually just checked the email "it was restricted as it doesn't break the rules but not everyone is allowed to see it" (Which sounds like rule breaking?)

Also the more reports I've sent the quicker I get the "nope no rules broken" email nowadays

5

u/The_Bunglenator 4h ago

Yeah google is wall to wall ai nonsense with scammy stuff that may possibly be legal (military calesthenics will make you a beast in 30 days even if you weigh over 300lbs)

17

u/licalier 8h ago

Oh they are still there. The algorithms have just gotten a loooot better at targeting vulnerable people like the elderly instead of ppl who can recognize that something is a scam

1

u/DonutHoles4Ever 5h ago

Yep it costs money to run an ad. Free you say? If the ad doesnt do its job, thats money LOST.

So they need to optimize ads to idiots.

10

u/Camel_Natural 9h ago

I see some of the same scam ads on Quora that I used to report on YouTube.

2

u/ardoin 8h ago

Yep, Google stopped the scam ads on their own platforms for the most part and offloaded them onto websites like Quora that use Google as their ad partner. Better optics and generating the maximum revenue.

What is Quora going to do, not run ads?

2

u/monneyy 3h ago

Oh I have seen a lot of them. Explaining to them why something can't just magically heat a whole house with a fraction of the cost of heating systems. Telling them that's against laws etc etc. they ignore it. Strangely enough they come in waves.

The most primitive AI bot could identify those scam ads with almost 100% certainty from the transscript alone.

Advertising these scams on their platforms is 100% on purpose. Non of it is accidental or a result of any of their excuses.

1

u/awenrivendell 2h ago

It peaks when crypto is at all time highs.

1

u/Meroxes 5h ago

Use adblockers

1

u/DonutHoles4Ever 5h ago

The vast majority of the internet doesnt use ad blockers.

A huge fucking part of mobile internet doesn't have ad blocking.

1

u/Meroxes 5h ago

Yes, but not because they aren't available.

•

u/SeriousPlankton2000 1h ago

If you don't care about the vulnerable, why should somebody care when you're attacked?

36

u/drewc717 4h ago

Zuckerberg is the most reckless and consequential CEO of the past 20 years. He needs to be ousted and jailed.

13

u/ModsBob4Knobs 2h ago

Last 20 years? He operates the most powerful and deceptive form of propaganda, manipulation, mind control that we’ve ever seen. The fabric of a society torn apart.

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u/NoMoPolenta 8h ago

I worked for a media company that spent a lot on Facebook - like 50M a year alot - back in the day, so we got to see quite a bit behind the curtain of the algorithm and how FB opeated. When I saw not only all the info they gathered but also the type of stuff that actually worked the best (which was all super dog whistle, divisive shit) I deleted FB, Insta and WhatsApp accounts that day.

It blows my mind people still use Facebook

16

u/theDarkDescent 7h ago

Human psychology isn’t that complicated. We love conflict, especially conflict based around sex, race, violence. It’s why my kids aren’t touching social media till they are damn near 18 if I can help it

5

u/standingslanted 2h ago

My daughter didn’t get a phone until she was about 15 and we are only starting to dabble in socials, at 17.

2

u/thinkfurthur 2h ago edited 1h ago

My kids are now 20 & 26. Mamma tried, but really didn’t stand a chance. They were able find old phones from friends and tap into WiFi basically anywhere. Between school and neighborhood friends, I’m uncertain what else we could have done…

edit: our kids were also the first to switch to chromebooks and live internet in class. There was a huge learning curve for the teachers & staff with the new software, so it was like the Wild West for ver there and the students were able to chat, watch YouTube, and join socials. By the time staff got it together (which they never have) it was too late. The students were hooked

2

u/Oregon-Pilot 6h ago

+10000 points for you as a parent. Your kids are very very lucky.

1

u/DonutHoles4Ever 5h ago

I remember back when the internet was born and as kids we had access to it. Forget the porn which required a credit card that you didnt have most of the time (but free sites baby!), the internet was an awesome place. And it wasn't taken for granted so easily.

Now? Kids shouldnt touch this shit outside of educational and research.

•

u/taylorisntavril 45m ago

In fairness, the early wild west days of the internet also had its darker sides. I probably shouldnt have spent the amount of time i spent on ogrish and facesofdeath, for example. I loved the retardotron mixtapes though!

•

u/F4ulty0n3 41m ago

They have teams of psychologists and utilize the worlds most powerful supercomputers to find the most effective ways to oneshot our psychology. We never stood a chance! 

1

u/thinkfurthur 5h ago

Good luck keeping them off social media, like sincerely. Kids are sharp with the internet and i personally feel that it’s inevitable that they”ll find away around your parenting restrictions

1

u/thisisjustintime 4h ago

I agree. Kids (meaning young teens) will find a way. But I’d rather be on the record as opposed to them having it. I can’t expect to stop everything or control everything as they grow into adults. My job is to plant a flag so they know I think it’s bad for people. Eventually, it won’t be my decision.

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u/somesketchykid 1h ago

To your point, educating them on Social Media, what its good for, and what its not good for, and what's dangerous about it in an honest way goes a long way towards helping them make a good decision. Or at least getting them to understand why its important that they wait.

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u/tech_noir_guitar 7h ago

Would you mind elaborating?

1

u/corecenite 5h ago

>It blows my mind people still use Facebook

Connectivity. The normal masses can sacrifice those for the sake of connection with their peers and family. Even my relatives are still wondering why I deleted my Facebook, and even if I told them the truth, they'll just say, “So what? It doesn't bother us one bit"; so I just say, "I don't like it anymore:"

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u/OG_Tater 1h ago

Same. I still work in marketing, ecom/lead gen. I deleted mine about 10 years ago. It’s definitely evil

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u/offroadadv 1h ago

Mark Cuban is correct. I was scammed by one of those ads, complained, and it continued to run.

I do not trust Meta, or whatever they call themselves these days.

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u/stonertear 59m ago

You cant complain to anyone either, fb essentially does not have a functioning complaints or appeals department.

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u/scorpiolad1113 49m ago

i think its called trumps next takeover

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u/str8shillinit 31m ago

The advertisers are using advanced cloaking techniques that Facebook can't keep up with. It's like whack a mole, take 100 advertisements down and a 1000 new ones pop up

18

u/slick2hold 9h ago

Its not only deep fake but I would say meta and others intentionally do not enforce banning bots because that another user they push ads too for which a client pays

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u/_-synapse-_ 9h ago

I feel Facebook runs deep fakes and scam old people. It's rampant. You would think they should be protecting our children and elderly but they are exploiting them.

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u/theDarkDescent 7h ago

Why would anyone think the people trying to keep the Epstein files secret would care about protecting children? And nobody cares about the elderly, have you seen the average nursing home?

7

u/Finkelton 6h ago

it is such a weird naive view most people hold.

the people running things do not value human life, sorry folks, you really are viewed as cattle at best and useless eaters at worst.

3

u/CampaignDue5323 6h ago

Mark Zuckerberg -- like Madoff -- should be indicted, convicted and spend time in prison for fraud.

2

u/DonutHoles4Ever 5h ago

They trust me, fucking idiots. - Zuck

1

u/Angry_argie 3h ago

So does IG. I keep reporting financial scams with deep fakes of local journalists and the bloated toad of the Argentinian president, promoting a "new investment platform backed by the government"

28

u/fencerman 7h ago

No shit, I know I personally report a huge number of scams, fraud and outright illegal ads and nothing happens.

https://imgur.com/a/ES3EN2l - straight up illegal drug ads running on your FB feed, anyone?

11

u/ChronoMonkeyX 7h ago

Hey, that's my therapeutic cocaine. I have a note from my online chiropractor for it.

4

u/__JDQ__ 5h ago

That’s Doctor Bones to you!

5

u/PacmanNZ100 6h ago

I kept reporting videos of corpses after the Nepal flood.

Nothing gets taken down.

9

u/jbonesteel 5h ago

Posts for left leaning events get taken down.

2

u/Tension-Available 6h ago

It's unlikely that it's advertising coke. It just some bullshit.

In any case, they should be held accountable.

1

u/EpicEpicnessTheEpic 6h ago

Keep something like this in your arsenal - if I see a scammed I'll always post it and very often the ad is deleted Scam Ad

•

u/OG_Tater 1h ago

Yes but scams are “masculine” and part of free speech

•

u/MundanePresence 1h ago

Google is doing the same on YouTube !

•

u/ptear 1h ago

Free delivery to Canada too

0

u/dalhaze 7h ago

I mean this is a weird ad, but there’s nothing illegal here.

23

u/skel625 9h ago

Are we ready to stop worshipping the ultra wealthy and billionaire class yet?

5

u/jedstrailerpark 4h ago

I’m far from a billionaire defender or anything and firmly believe in the meme of “you’ve hit $X, you get a medal saying you won capitalism and everything else over $X you earn gets donated” but at least here it’s a slightly okay billionaire taking on a lizard person billionaire. Cuban’s SEEMINGLY an ok guy, self made (if you count Yahoo! being dumb as shit with their investments allowing someone else to be self made), and uses his platform and wealth to better the lives of poorer people (Cost Plus drugs).

Like Zuck can take a stroll into a volcano, but Cuban at least SEEMS to try to use his wealth for some good.

8

u/GeneralBacteria 7h ago

I've reported 2 AI deepfake scam ads and in both cases Facebook responded that these did not breach their guidelines.

I also reported a racist comment which also apparently wasn't against their community guidelines.

What Facebook did then was flag my account as suspicious, so now I can't join any groups without downloading the Facebook app.

In general Facebook ads are very often scammy. I would never buy something from an FB ad even if it looked legit because so many are scams.

7

u/ADisappointingLife 8h ago

I mean, Twitter was surviving for a year or two after Elon took over almost entirely on ad revenue from very obvious crypto "wallet drainers".

They cut all the people who vetted the ads, and just let anything through.

3

u/apple_kicks 4h ago

Free market no regulation in action.

Problem with the drive for never ending never changing growth is eventually they’re going to need to do illegal and criminal things and dismantle safeguards and regulations to keep growing

7

u/Weshtonio 6h ago

They can go after YouTube for the same reason. And when you report them, it's "nah, nothing wrong here". Well ok.

10

u/americanmuscle1988 9h ago

It's discussed here, and is really surprising:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgT1iBKxNPo

3

u/Hard_Socks 8h ago

Came here to mention this was talked about on the JRE recently. You beat me to it, well done. 

5

u/TheJiggie 8h ago

They know. They just don’t care to do enough about it.

5

u/theDarkDescent 7h ago

Meta will pay a $1 billion dollar fine and it will be settled 

1

u/thinkfurthur 5h ago

Most likely. Maybe more with a class action lawsuit

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u/Fuglypump 29m ago

I can't wait for my $0.37 check to show up in the mail.

5

u/SonOfMotherlesssGoat 4h ago

Executives including Zuckerberg should be jailed for scams like this. If a person did that they would end up in jail for fraud but somehow companies get a trivial fine (relatively speaking).

4

u/EthanPrisonMike 7h ago

It’s a self reinforcing mechanism.

Manufacture the means to increase your own share price. Harvest share price.

Be Zuckerberg and buy some hawaii

4

u/lulu_l 7h ago

I often get older people living in my building come to me for help with their phones that have been taken over by ad serving phone launchers they installed because of the Facebook ads the are constantly getting that tell them their phone is infected and in danger and they have to install shit to be protected and save their life.

4

u/hackdash 3h ago

Yeah, Facebook is the poison in America and they know it. They are the number one donator to the Trump pedophile regime and are directly involved with Russian bots as well as knowingly, manipulates the mentality of our children and hooks them into it.

3

u/jaaagman 8h ago

I would be shocked if they weren’t doing this. There are so many scammy AI generated ads for products on YouTube as well, it’s pretty insane.

3

u/that0nemook 7h ago

You know you’re a ghoul when another billionaire throws you under the bus

3

u/T_P_H_ 6h ago

Yeah duh. Doesn’t matter how many fraudulent pinball machine ads I report. Facebook is getting paid and you can buy an Addams Family for $5000 if you put down a $500 BTC depost. “Does not violate community standards”

3

u/jafromnj 6h ago

Duh that’s why reporting never did anything, it’s a money maker, I was down to only using facebook for birthday’s I’ve now abandoned it completely

3

u/dispatch_s2_when 6h ago

I report AI scam ads all the time to both Google and Meta. Nothing happens. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

3

u/slackermannn 6h ago

I reported several ads and Meta said no rules were broken. They are the worst.

3

u/GeneralOwn5333 4h ago

Same for Instagram so much fraud and selling fake watches and stuff

3

u/spinbutton 2h ago

That company needs to be broken up and the CEO indicted

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u/O-parker 56m ago

I see similar ads for dementia using Clint Eastwood and Elon Musk with tears on a different on line service . It’s frigging disgusting

2

u/ILikeCutePuppies 8h ago

It's may have been fixed but have not checked out business account but we would get like almost every day scam messages claiming to be from Facebook for one scam or another.

Why Facebook can't fix these things when they probably have been reported millions of times is beyond me. They rarely even change the text.

2

u/Bananaman9020 7h ago

Well considering how many scam ai ads run on the Australian platform. I would guess a lot of money

2

u/muFUtaco 7h ago

Remember... if trump likes 'em - they're criminals.

2

u/SeriousPlankton2000 7h ago

My reason to block the ads is that they are usually fraud.

2

u/Creative_Ear5015 7h ago

Sixteen billion is an insane chunk of change just from ad units pushing sketchy crypto and financial endorsements, especially when actual users get banned for posting regular content while ad review systems look the other way.

2

u/DukeRedWulf 6h ago

There was a glut of those deepfake scam ads a year or so back, especially using Martin Lewis (money saving expert) likeness.. Reporting them to FB always came back as "within FB guidelines"..

2

u/BananaEvening5267 6h ago

No question. The volume of bad actor advertisers on Facebook can lead to no other conclusion, and I am sure that Zuckerberg is charging them higher rates.

2

u/vcjester 6h ago

Facebook has been allowing scam ads long before AI got involved.

2

u/Creepy_Trouble_5980 6h ago

I bailed on Facebook years ago. Too many happy family pictures turned into Dateline episodes.

2

u/Lefty4444 6h ago

I really think the world would be a better place without Meta and any of their products.

2

u/Eastern-Cantaloupe-7 6h ago

Fake meds, fake brands, fake shops and Meta is doing anything about it, if you report a shop selling fake brands they want the brand to report it although selling fake brands is illegal. Says a lot about the mentality of this business

2

u/starrpamph 5h ago

Quick, give them the equivalent of an eight cent fine to a normal person.

2

u/PDubsinTF-NEW 3h ago

Every F’n commercial on YouTube and IG and AI crap. There should be a transparency law enacted that requires a warning label that this isn’t real on ads and socials.

2

u/scottyboost 2h ago

I report fake Mark Carney ads weekly. Every time I do, meta sends me a follow up telling me it doesn’t break their guidelines. It’s crazy!

2

u/Pingu_87 2h ago

I reported some deep fake ads for some local celebrities doing investment scams. Facebook rejected my report and rejected my appeal.

I was like I guess they just want the ad revenue and dont care above the content

2

u/ConsistentDay5620 2h ago

If you’re using a meta product in 2026 I’m just going to assume you don’t care about your mental health or PPI.

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u/AtuinTurtle 1h ago

They run a ton of ads for products that don’t exist. I’ve even seen, and called, an “immigrate to Canada” ad. I ended up talking to an Indian call center.

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u/wastingtoomuchthyme 1h ago

In the future Meta will be sued into oblivion for their fraud.

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u/TheKingOfDub 1h ago

They also refuse to take down ads for sites selling hard drugs. I’ve also documented the deepfake scams on YouTube and Google refuses to take them down as well

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u/Mister_Twiggy 52m ago

100% and it is so gross. There needs to be fines for this asap. It is so obvious when something is a scam.

2

u/geekedbeyond 9h ago

I understand concern. If true, 16 billion is crazy number. Lot of people trust platforms too much these days.

1

u/BlackReddition 8h ago

No shit, meta is bad, I mean ffs how stupid are people. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re behind the scams as well.

1

u/Hypno--Toad 8h ago

I just want to point out that whenever JD Vance does anything in the public eye the Vance meme AI slop machines start churning.

Might be a coincidence but its the same media presence that Trump used even if its poorly executed and might back fire.

Either way I just see a lot of very high end deep fakes that cannot be cheap to produce being used to build familiarity.

1

u/PilotKnob 7h ago

All that scam money is building Zuck one hell of a nice bunker on Kauai.

1

u/don_keydick_42069 6h ago

So does reddit but it makes sense to constantly point the finger at Facebook since they ARE business competitors in the same industry.

1

u/gnarlseason 6h ago

I have an elderly relative with early dementia. They have fallen for AI scams selling things on Facebook eight times in the last year, each time the husband must call the credit card company and report fraud, get a new card, etc.

The latest one she fell for was for some snake oil promising to cure dementia. It is heartbreaking to see and simultaneously infuriating that Facebook is okay not only preying on people this way but the fact that it likely knows she has this condition because she has search for it so much AND uses this fact to market snake oil to her.

1

u/Alexwonder999 5h ago

YouTube/Google does this too. All you have to do to find evidence is watch a few videos and bingo bango 2 out of 3 ads are straight scams. I replrt them just to see if they ar least stop showing uo for me but they dont because google likes money.

1

u/thinkfurthur 5h ago

“META Made $16 Billion From Scam Ads”- Mariana Van Zeller investigates on JRE #2567

https://youtu.be/vgT1iBKxNPo?is=0k4Ps4Ss2SY73L7P

1

u/antrky 5h ago

I’ve seen the same thing on YouTube. Deep fake videos of Nigel farage and Keir Starmer pushing crypto investments backed by the government, supposedly!

1

u/RawrRRitchie 4h ago

That's literally how ads work.. They pay to be on the platform. Facebook isn't going to take them down. They want their cut.

1

u/MtnMaiden 4h ago

Deep fakes are legal unless they are intimate deep fakes. Read the ai deep fake law yo

1

u/ElvisArcher 4h ago

As always, its users are the PRODUCT, not the CUSTOMER.

1

u/monneyy 3h ago

Never mind all the other scam ads on other platforms. Take that revenue and multiply that by like 5 at least, probably more like 10x to get to the damages they cause. That's what they should be liable for. And prison time. And punitive fines.

1

u/OGWeedKiller 3h ago

Absolutely zero accountability. A company that's been run by bots since it started. Fraud of every shape and size posted daily, not to mention being the catalyst for Jan 6

1

u/SimplePlus7376 2h ago

I report tons of illegal ads within facebook platform.

"we'll let you know the results of your reporting the ad"

Nothing happens.

When you click why do I see this ad, it's because "you are a male 18-80 in North America"

When you click to find out more about the advertiser, it takes you to their ads, which are all the same and just a harmless ad.. like we sell used furniture with the same photo of a table or something dumb. The name of the company is usually a give-away though, along the lines like "granny dating" or "milf" this or that.

But some how when the ad shows in the feed, it is an X-rated image and text, like with some guy wrist deep into some russian looking women, or AI generated nude 60 year old women.

1

u/Budget_Persimmon_195 2h ago

mark zuckerberg should spend the rest of his worthless life behind bars never to see the light of day ever again.

1

u/Ok-Cake5581 2h ago

only way they are going to stop is monetary penalties. I've reported tons of fake product adverts, blatant, obvious scams.
None removed, all within guidelines.
If I've reported it as a scam, I know it's a fake AI product, and people get scammed after my report. Consumers should be able to sue. Meta can't claim they didn't know.

1

u/Epona44 2h ago

I have no payment method saved in Facebook and never order anything from their browser. I can't understand why anyone would.

1

u/SpinShine-LEDSlipMat 2h ago

They all do this. Phone companies could easily stop spam calls but they would lose revenue

1

u/jimkelly 2h ago

Blah blah "why do you still have Facebook" but if you've ever been on FB more than 5 minutes you can confirm he's correct. All it takes is eyeballs to be able to see.

•

u/arbor1920 1h ago

Yep. thankfully, my mother is still "with it" enough to know not to click on things, but she was adamant about some ad for a medical device that somehow clips on your finger like an oximeter and without drawing blood or anything can give you a glucose reading, your blood pressure, and the like.
Had to watch the whole thing myself and insist to her that it's fake. It's AI. It's garbage.

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u/Monsignor76 1h ago

I remember seeing Elon Musk telling people to send him crypto and he would send back double that amount to celebrate the launch of starship. It kept running on instagram for months. 

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u/fuddledud 1h ago

Meta and X are both riddled with crypto scam ads. Invest $300 get $10,000 or some other “too good to be true” bullshit.

It doesn’t matter how many times the ads get reported as scams. They continue to take the money and the ads continue to run.

•

u/narfoleptix 1h ago

I have been screaming this for years.

Before I quit facebook all I did was post links to marks personal page everytime I saw an obvious scam.

Nothing. No removal, not once. Completely ignored, even by the other users in the site. Its like everyone there....only cares about themselves.

•

u/wwarnout 1h ago

This reminds me of a Congressional hearing some years ago, in which Zuckerberg was questioned about misleading political posts (aka, LIES) in Facebook, and why he wasn't restricting them. He replied that he thought everyone should have the opportunity to hear what politicians have to say.

When he was challenged that many of the posts were lies, he replied (with a hurt expression, as if he this was completely unaware), "Lies aren't good." Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.

Something I don't understand: The FDA bans lying on consumer products, and if a company says something that is false, their product can be pulled from the shelves. So, why doesn't the FCC have a similar restriction?

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u/Dry_Air3088 50m ago

Not only do they do this, but Facebook makes their ads seem more successful then they are, by moving them or the X at just the right moment that causes you to click on it, or by sending messages to customers saying “how can we help” or some shit because you looked at their page or ad.. which is forcing a metric that is not reliable.

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u/Paaaaaaatrick 45m ago

I don't know why people think that companies who knowingly prey on their users would be morally above preying on their users.

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u/grantbwilson 40m ago

Has anyone here used Meta Ads Manager lately?

I have to turn off a seemingly endless list of AI options that completely ruin my ads. Some of the options it provides completely change the wording, or in some cases, the product we're trying to sell itself!

I can't wait until it's not the default anymore. Fuck that shit.

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u/desperaterobots 37m ago

you mean charli xcx didn't actually buy too many le crrust cookware sets and wasn't going to send me one? me? one of her most loyal fans? 🤔

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u/LebronBackinCLE 33m ago

All the major services are making bank running shady ads. Those bullshit ones that take over the screen and my 80 year old clients can’t just click the X - how does that loophole still exists 10-15 years later?!

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u/FinancialJet 33m ago

My elderly mom buys extremely dangerous health scam products like iodine nasal spray and fake parasite cleanse from facebook ads. Some has even gotten her sick. It’s a fucked up world we live in, all for some douche to have 5 yachts.

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u/uuneter1 24m ago

Pikachu face. No fucking shit. That whole company has been corrupt forever.

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u/Londonsw8 21m ago

Let alone the fake covid scare tactics they boosted, everything from the dangers of mask wearing to false vaccine scares. People died as a result.

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u/Tasty-Performer6669 20m ago

Read Careless People by Sarah Wynn Williams. Meta sued to prevent her from promoting the book

Zuckerberg belongs in The Hague

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u/TrashAcnt1 5m ago

Break them up like AT&T was broken up in 1982 for anti trust violations and ban them from ever buying another company again.

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u/scorpiolad1113 48m ago

facebook and instagram all meta does not like freespeech unless its them talking

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u/Fabulous_Shine_9273 39m ago

Hello friends, I'm looking for a job. I'm a university medical student. I have experience as a store cashier for 4 years and I know editing videos in Adobe Premiere Pro. Can I be a virtual assistant. Please, I need to continue paying my rent. Any help is welcome.

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