WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Federation of America filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., Superior Court alleging Meta misled users about its efforts to prevent scams on Facebook and Instagram. The nonprofit advocacy group alleges the company failed to block ads that could pose a risk to users while charging advertisers more to display their content.

The complaint alleges Meta downplayed the scale of fraud on its apps, creating a "false impression of safety" for users, and that the company's conduct violates a Washington, D.C., consumer protection law. The CFA is seeking damages, business reforms in Meta's handling of advertisements, and to recover what it describes as illegal profits the company earned from the ads.

"Meta has adopted policies and practices that it knows allow scam advertisements to proliferate on its platforms while simultaneously profiting off those ads at its users' expense," the group stated in the suit. The complaint cites ads in Meta's ad library targeting people by birth year that tout $1,400 checks, and others advertising free government iPhones.

"As Americans lose more and more money to online scams, Meta has consistently chosen to prioritize profit over the safety of their users," said Ben Winters, director of AI and data privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.

A Meta spokesperson said the company aggressively combats scams on its platforms. "Last year alone, we removed over 159 million scam ads, 92% of which we took down before anyone reported them, and took down 10.9 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram associated with criminal scam centers," the spokesperson said. The company continues to invest in new technologies to combat securities investment scams and other fraud.

In a May 2025 presentation, Meta estimated its platforms were involved with a third of all successful scams in the United States. A 2024 company document estimated Meta would earn 10.1 percent of its revenue that year, around $16 billion, from ads that were scams or other types of prohibited content. The spokesperson said the estimate was rough and overly inclusive and that the documents distort the company's approach to fraud and scams.

In June 2025, a coalition of state attorneys general, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, urged Meta to crack down on Facebook ads that led consumers to WhatsApp groups used for investment scams. New York investigators saw scam advertisements on Meta platforms months after reporting them to the company. The U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general's office filed a separate lawsuit alleging Meta failed to crack down on scam advertising and charged advertisers higher rates to run ads flagged as likely fraudulent. That case is ongoing.

"We appreciate their work and think it's absolutely critical, but we can't wait for them to act when we haven't seen them able to act as quickly as we need to," Winters said.