Social media sites received nearly £3.8bn ($5.2bn) in revenue from malicious ads in Europe in 2025, off the back of almost one trillion impressions, according to Juniper Research.
The analyst used publicly available data to study ads on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn, across 11 European markets including the UK.
It defined a scam ad as a “deceptive paid post that misleads users into giving money, personal information, or account access by falsely advertising products, services, or investment opportunities.”
The Revolut‑sponsored report found that European users saw 993 billion social media ad impressions last year, generating £38bn ($52bn) in revenue. About 10% of those impressions were linked to scams.
Read more on scam advertising: UK Announces New Rules to Tackle Surging Online Scam Adverts.
Juniper Research predicted that total impressions would surge to 1.4 trillion by 2030, pushing overall ad revenue up by 120% to £84bn ($114bn). That could mean social platforms benefitting from scams to the tune of around £8.4bn unless more protections are built in.
The report warned that consumers typically lower their guard on social sites, as they believe content to be pre-vetted.
“Scam ads erode trust among social media users through advertising fake products with attractive deals or investment opportunities,” the report noted. “When users are successfully deceived, they not only lose money, but also risk exposing sensitive financial and personal information to scammers.”
Although the big social media sites already do some scanning for malicious ads, they should do more in terms of detection, enforcement and user education, or else risk a dangerous erosion of credibility and user trust, the report warned.
Banks Urge Social Media to Step Up
Banks and payment providers have long argued that social media sites should accept more responsibility for the surge in global fraud over recent years.
They argue that the majority of fraud – like authorized push payment fraud – occurs outside of banking apps and sites, meaning that financial institutions alone should not be footing the bill for reimbursement of victims.
Social sites claim they already invest heavily in anti-fraud measures, and that more real-time data sharing from banks would help.
In 2023, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, LinkedIn and others signed up to a “world-first” Online Fraud Charter with the UK government, in which they committed to blocking and removing fraudulent content from their platforms – including scam ads.
However, the Juniper report urged more action from social media platforms, including:
- Greater transparency about their fraud fighting efforts
- Investment in manual checks for advertisers, alongside automated identification
- Greater agility to evolve tactics as scams change over time
- Promote the above to build trust with users
