On Tuesday, the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America filed a lawsuit against Meta, arguing that the social networking giant’s handling of fraudsters on its platforms violates Washington’s consumer protection laws.
While many online scams involve fraudsters (who are often themselves trafficked in fraud centers) directly targeting victims, CFAs lawsuit focuses on fraudulent advertising that the CFA said Meta profited from and was able to “spread across its platforms,” despite public assurances that it was grave about combating fraud and scams.
In its complaint, CFA points to ads found in Meta’s ad library that CFA says are the type of well-known scams, including several that appear to target people by year of birth and tout $1,400 checks, as well as others advertising free government iPhones.
In an interview with WIRED, Ben Winters, CFA’s director of artificial intelligence and data privacy, says others can find more questionable ads by simply searching Meta’s ad library using keywords like “free phone” and “stimulus check.” On Monday, a quick look through WIRED’s ad library showed more energetic ads for “secret tax audits” that link to a website that promises to reveal “Wall Street’s recession-proof investing strategy.”
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The CFA is seeking to recover damages and claims Meta has made illegal profits as well as business reforms. Winters says more needs to be done to weed out repeat violators and scrutinize ads that promise, for example, free government programs that don’t exist before they’re presented to consumers.
Meta has come under particular scrutiny because Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – all owned by Meta – are among the most frequently used online platforms by Americans, according to a recent Pew Research Center study report. Slow 2025. Reuters reported on a set of internal Meta documents detailing how the company dealt with fraudulent and prohibited user activity, including a May 2025 presentation that estimated its platforms were involved in one-third of all successful scams in the US. Another presentation cited by Reuters alleged that an internal review of Meta found that “it is easier to advertise fraud on Meta platforms than on Google.”
One 2024 meta-documentary cited by Reuters estimated that the company would make 10.1% of its revenue this year, or about $16 billion, from ads that were actually scams or other types of prohibited content. To put this number into perspective, the F.B.I estimated that in 2024, Americans lost $16 billion due to all internet crimes. A Meta spokesman at the time called the estimate “rough and overly inclusive” and said the set of documents reported by Reuters “distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and fraud” and that actual revenue was lower, but declined to tell Reuters by how much.
In June 2025, a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general he insisted Meta is set to crack down on Facebook ads that led consumers to WhatsApp groups used to carry out investment scams. The letter, signed by Fresh York AG Letiticia James, stated that Meta’s solutions did not work and that investigators in Fresh York saw fraudulent ads for several months after submitting reports to Meta.
Since then, the U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against Meta, which, among other things, alleged that the company not only failed to deal with fraudulent ads, but also charged advertisers higher rates for displaying ads marked as possibly false. This process is ongoing.
Although the federal government and many states have similar consumer protection laws to the D.C. law that CFA accuses Meta of violating, 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 assist now.
“We appreciate their work and think it is absolutely critical, but we can’t wait for them to get up and running when we haven’t seen them be able to get going as quickly as we need them to,” Winters says. “That’s why nonprofits and civil society exist in an idealized world, right? To fill gaps where there are gaps.”