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Cuban: Facebook knowingly runs AI deepfake scam ads; docs say $16B fraud revenue

Cuban: Facebook knowingly runs AI deepfake scam ads; docs say $16B fraud revenue

randycupertino

Comments (143)

  • nkrisc
    Make advertisers liable for the ads they run. Force them to vet ads or simply not run ads.If Meta is accepting so many ads they can’t review them then too bad for them. Hire more people or accept fewer ads.Ideally this will result in a complete obliteration of the ad industry with only a small number of high quality ads surviving.
  • jhloa2
    The amount of times I’ve reported obvious scam ads on instagram just to receive a “we found this to not be in violation of our terms” is so disheartening.
  • trilogic
    Not different from harmful content. 16 billions fraud establish a pattern which makes a company liable. I would start by paying back the amount with on top a considerable fine (the kind of fine painful enough to remind you not to do it again), then a warning with penal prosecution next time.
  • bananzamba
    A German finance YouTuber successfully sued Meta for scam ads that used his face and brand: https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-scam-ads-ruling-germany-fra...
  • 7373737373
    Same on Google and Youtube. The CEOs and controlling shareholders should be sent straight to jail. Deliberate profiteering from crime!
  • paulirish
    Reuters report from a year ago:> Meta internally projected that it would earn about 10% of its overall annual revenue – or $16 billion – from running advertising for scams and banned goods> But the company only bans advertisers if its automated systems predict the marketers are at least 95% certain to be committing fraud, the documents show.https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortu...
  • golden-face
    Initially reading the title my mind thought "Cuban...Cuban defector/intelligence agent?! Oh wow I wonder what they have to reveal?"It's Mark Cuban. Still worth reading tho. But I found my own personal reaction fascinating because I am not sure I would have clicked through if the title included the full "Mark Cuban".
  • puszczyk
    One of Polish billionaires/entrepreneurs was often featured in scam adds on Facebook (the adds that trick you into “investing” into “crypto”, and similar). Of course not only he — a lot of celebrities or politicians.Anyways, he takes it to court and even started a campaign to raise awareness of how much money meta makes in Poland out of scams.Notes: - Rafał Brzoska https://notesfrompoland.com/2026/08/27/poland-asks-eu-to-fin... - Usually there’s no crypto: scammers will show you a fake portal and steal your money
  • peterbecich
    These companies were profitable on higher quality ads in earlier years. Does this drop in quality indicate the ad well has run dry, so to speak? Or the demands for revenue are greater, necessitating a drop in standards?
  • Incipient
    Meta has to invest more money into screening advertising so they ban more ads and therefore make less money.Unless there is a genuine financial (or legal) impact, they have no incentive.Companies in the US still use a huge array of known harmful ingredients because they work better and are cheaper.Blame the government for lack of regulation, that's what they're there for.
  • riffraff
    For a while there was a deepfake scam in Italian in FB which looked like a TV news with well known journalists announcing everyone would get money for free using some crypto thingy, followed by am interview with the prime minister saying they looked into this and it was safe.The level of carelessness was astonishing to me.
  • OsrsNeedsf2P
    I worked in a team that was only tangently related to this. There are hundreds of people at Meta who knew this was going on.
  • anenefan
    Yes they were doing the same is Australia ... I wouldn't know if they're still doing it here since one of the favourite scams used an Australian who took them to court. [1][1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-11/andrew-forrest-meta-s...
  • siliconc0w
    It's pretty crazy this is tolerated by society, I know several older people scammed using Metas products.And that isn't even counting the Instagram ads my wife falls for.
  • elAhmo
    I don't think he is telling anything new.
  • nervai
    Can we do YouTube next? Every YouTube ad these days is deception and fraud.We've completely normalised big tech pushing straight up scams on the population.
  • phendrenad2
    Someone should set up an AI agent that clicks around Facebook, detects scam ads, reports them to Facebook, and then, if it still sees the same ad an hour later, file a lawsuit. One per ad. Demand that they preserve records related to how many other people may have seen that ad.
  • nullbio
    Advertising really does seem to be at the root of a lot of societies evils.
  • adrr
    Remove section 230 fixes this problem. Every other business is responsible for what happens at their place of business/publications/sites. Social media sites follow the same rules as everyone else.
  • scosman
    The ad Yahoo puts in this article is amazingly ironic> Jeff Bezos backs a platform that lets anyone invest in rental homes for as little as $100 — 6 ways to build wealth like a landlord without actually being one
  • whatever1
    Ok every business has a dirty secret. But Meta’s entire business is a slate of dirty secrets.
  • laweijfmvo
    What are they supposed to do, not run AI deepfake scam ads?
  • exabrial
    It isn't a "Scam", it's "optimizing ad revenue"
  • anon
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  • walrus01
  • contubernio
    When a business like meta turns to scummy/scammy revenue sources it signals that their core business has serious problems.
  • dpkirchner
    I have a terrible idea: an ad blocker that only blocks AI generated ads. It submits the ad image/copy to Gemini and if it is not a fake product the ad is displayed. I'm confident that Gemini would do a pretty good job at identifying these scams and that the extension would demonstrate how easy it would be for Google to do it themselves. If they and their employees cared.I could LLM this up but eh. It won't actually convince Googlers to do the right thing so it'll just stay a terrible idea.
  • jedmeyers
    I know Snap might not be that popular here, but what is your experience with Snap ads? Same amount of scam or more?
  • hsuduebc2
    No amount of hate this fucking company gets will ever be enough.
  • thewhitetulip
    Have you guys got AI ads for Tai Chi Walking thst supposedly melts fat in 45 days by just walking?
  • etchalon
    Meta has no moral compass and does not care whom they harm.
  • 0x4e
    The irony behind this article serving AI slop ads that are likely malicious.
  • d--b
    The main issue is that most ads are scam anyways. Where do you draw the line?The Gordon Ramsey pans are not considered scam, but they’re still highly priced garbage sold by a greatly misleading ad.The Tai Chi thing is clearly a scam, but it’s lying just a little more than the pans ad, and pointing you to a definitely more predatory business.But they are not fundamentally different…
  • sneak
    eBay is also knowingly complicit in enabling completely fraudulent sellers, by policy, at scale.It improves their bottom line, so everyone there is disincentivized to fix it.
  • anon
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  • randycupertino
    [flagged]
  • ReDress
    [dead]
  • anon
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