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DID THEY HEAR OUR PODCAST?? – Senators Call for Investigation into Facebook’s BILLION DOLLAR Ad Fraud! – by James M. Walsh, Esq.

November 25, 2025 No Comments

DID THEY HEAR OUR PODCAST?? – Senators Call for Investigation into Facebook’s BILLION DOLLAR Ad Fraud! – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
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IMPORTANT NOTE! If you have been scammed after seeing an ad on one of Meta’s platforms, please contact the law firm listed at the end of this article!

Please listen to Episode 26 of the WritersWeekly Postcast: EXPOSED!!! Facebook KNOWINGLY Earns BILLIONS from Scam Ads – This is a BOMBSHELL!!!

In a scathing rebuke of Meta Platforms, Inc., Senators Josh Hawley (R Missouri) and Richard Blumenthal (D Connecticut) have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “to investigate and, if appropriate, bring enforcement actions against Meta for its facilitation of and profiting from criminal investment scams, fake government benefits schemes, deepfake pornography, and other fraudulent activities.”

It’s about time!

Angela Hoy and I have both been interviewed by the Associated Press and The Guardian regarding Meta knowingly and willingly profiting from illegal activities on its platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

As Angela and I have been reporting for over a year, Meta’s recalcitrant and reckless indifference – even active participation in – criminal fraud has been nothing short of shocking. It is high time that this broken Silicon Valley behemoth is held to account for its mendacity and blatant greed. The esteemed senators wrote to both the FTC and the SEC in a letter dated November 22, 2025, and implored both agencies to act on a myriad of fraudulent schemes.

Here are just three quotes from the letter:

“Meta’s central, facilitating role in scams against consumers is unprecedented: by its own employees’ assessment, Meta was involved in one-third of all successful scams in the US and was unmatched by other Big Tech platforms… This internal finding supports a December 2024 report by a U.K. financial regulator that found Meta’s platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) were linked to 54% of payment scams and a JPMorgan Chase investigation that found Meta accounted for nearly half of all reported scams on Zelle, such as romance scams that feign a love interest to deceive a victim and fake investment schemes.”

“…by its own estimates, it has ignored or incorrectly rejected 96% of user reports of fraud. Moreover, perversely, Meta reportedly charges higher rates for ads that it suspects might be fraudulent — in effect, imposing a scam tax that provides an additional lucrative revenue stream that it knows is tied to fraud.”

“The FTC and SEC should immediately open investigations and, if the reporting is accurate, pursue vigorous enforcement action where appropriate to force Meta to fully disgorge all profits from fraudulent advertisements, impose steep civil penalties, hold individual executives personally accountable, and seek binding terms to end this scourge on consumers, our economy, and our national security.”

Read the entire letter HERE.

Over the past several months, I reached out several times to the office of Senator Josh Hawley in a fervent attempt to expose Facebook for what it is – a broken criminal enterprise and a poisoned Internet platform, replete with predatory schemes that yielded Meta billions in illicit ad revenue. Sen. Hawley was also copied on many of the emails I sent to Meta’s Legal Investigations Unit, and to their Chief Legal Officer, Jennifer Newstead. Of course, Meta ignored my emails, as well as Angela Hoy’s, even when we sent them irrefutable proof that the profiles and ads we were reporting were scams targeting Meta’s legitimate users. We purposely saved copies of all of those emails. (We knew this was coming!) Meta won’t be able feign ignorance.

You know what’s even worse? Don’t miss this! Court Filings Allege Meta Downplayed Risks to Children and Misled the Public – “Sex trafficking on Meta platforms was both difficult to report and widely tolerated, according to a court filing unsealed Friday… You could incur 16 violations for prostitution and sexual solicitation, and upon the 17th violation, your account would be suspended, adding that ‘by any measure across the industry, [it was] a very, very high strike threshold.'” – Vaishnavi Jayakumar (Instagram’s former head of safety and well-being) reportedly testified,

We’ll be covering that horrific story next week.

Senator Hawley led a recent Senate inquiry into the bombshell exposé, Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former Senior Director of Global Public Policy.

“They [Meta Platforms, Inc.] have stopped at absolutely nothing to prevent today’s testimony. They have absolutely gone to war to try to prevent it,” he said. “They have gone scorched earth to prevent her from telling what she knows.” – Senator Josh Hawley (R), Missouri as quoted in TheHill.com

The FTC and SEC possess an arsenal of sanctions but nothing short of complete forfeiture of Meta’s ill gotten gains is in order. Meta has knowingly caused immense damage to not only its individual users, but also to legitimate U.S. companies who were losing billions in real business while trying to “compete” with the scammers that were funding Meta, including the self-publishing industry, authors, venerated publishing houses, banks, law firms (yes, scammers have fake law firm websites!), website design firms, tech companies, and countless other industries. Yes, legitimate U.S. companies were losing business because Meta’s users were sending money to scam companies (many overseas). And, Meta knew it was happening! Meta flagrantly snubbed its nose at trademark and copyright violations that we reported to them repeatedly, for more than a year.

Why did the complaint to the FTC and the SEC mention our economy? Because all the money going to scammers went overseas, and not to legitimate U.S. businesses. And, Meta took a cut of all of it, harming countless U.S. businesses AND, of course, our economy.

“In response to the Reuters report, Meta said it had reduced user reports of scams by 58% over the last eighteen months.” – wtvbam.com

It’s far more likely that number decreased because of Facebook users’ apathy over time. If Meta/Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp simply dismisses reports of scammers, over and over, how many people are going to keep reporting scams? Not many! Angela reported three publishing scammers to Facebook one day this week. She received three responses back from Facebook and they were all identical. Here is what they sent:

Notice how they admit that they didn’t even look at the reports.

If you kept reporting known scammers to Facebook, and they kept sending you messages like that, how likely would you be to keep reporting them to Facebook? You can be certain that Meta knows the answer to that!

Civil forfeiture is in order under RICO, where treble damages are available. While Meta’s internal documents showed that being forced to pay $1 BILLION in penalties was acceptable to them, compared to the billions in illegal profits they were earning, it now appears they could be forced to pay triple the amount that they earned from illicit activities. From just one year of knowingly profiting from scams (it’s been going on far longer than that), Meta would have to pay tens of billions. Again, that’s just for one year!

Meta has knowingly been feeding its users 15 billion scam ads a day.

“Crucially, the RICO Act extends liability beyond the individuals who directly perpetrate illegal acts, to include those who own or manage organizations that are used to facilitate such activities.” – Law Offices of David Schwartz

The cogs in the government wheels turn slowly. But, at least they are finally turning.

Stay tuned! We will keep all of you abreast of this situation in the coming weeks.

If you have been a victim after seeing an ad on Meta’s websites, you should immediately contact this law firm:

Adam M. Apton
LEVI & KORSINSKY LLP
388 Market Street, Suite 1300
San Francisco, CA 94111
Telephone: 415-373-1671
Email: aapton@zlk.com

Mark S. Reich
Courtney E. Maccarone
LEVI & KORSINSKY, LLP
33 Whitehall, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10004
Telephone: 212-363-7500
Email: mreich@zlk.com
Email: cmaccarone@zlk.com

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Maximum Impact by Leo A. Murray & James M. Walsh Esq.JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ. is a former Navy JAGC officer and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s coveted LAMP Award for excellence in military legal assistance practice. A rolling stone, J.M. has globetrotted most of his adult life. After the military, J.M. pursued commercial real estate development, leasing, and asset management. He resides in Catania, Sicily. He spent almost twenty years in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne, Erie & Lackawanna Counties. His handiwork as an editor and author is interspersed throughout this novel. Leo A. Murray fondly refers to J.M. as his collaborative, literary ‘Coach’ or ‘Lieutenant.’ Agnes claims that he has gypsy in his heart and rabbit in his feet.

James’ thriller, Maximum Impact, written with co-author Leo Murray, was published by Abuzz Press.



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