Scam adverts are making a huge profit for social media platforms, which gained £430 million off fraudulent ads targeting users in the UK in 2025.

Investigations from Juniper Research commssioned by challenger bank Revolut, found that UK social media users saw on average 185 scam adverts a month, which lost them a collective £44 million.

The UK was found to lead Europe when it comes to victims of fraudulent ads, with nearly 11% of the total European revenue from the practice coming from adverts targeted to a UK audience.

In Europe, social media firms profited around £4.4 billion a year from scam ads targeting their user base, with fraudulant ads running rampant across Facebook, Instagram, and X.

The issue is pervasive, with around 10% of all social media advertising profit in Europe stemming from fraudulent ads.

The revenue raised by social media firms from these scam ads is also on the rise, with the £430 million raised in the UK in 2025 represented a 56% increase on the profit gained in 2022.

According to Juniper Research, the problem is so insidious because of the way socail media platforms review ads; verification on an ad usually only takes place once the ad is paid for and published, leaving a window for fraudsters to target real users before their ad is taken down, if this happens at all.

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If the system does not change, Juniper Reserch claims that social media platforms could gain nearly £9bn from scam adverts by 2030.

It is no wonder that Revolut would commission a study into the problem – the prolific fintech has long put pressure on social media companies to take responsibility for the rise of online scams.

Other banks have also called out social media firms for dropping the ball and passing the buck onto financial services firms. In the case of certain types of scams, like push payment fraud, victims are often reimbused by their payment account provider, meaning that banks are footing the bill for these scams while organisations like Meta and X rake in ad revenue.

DIGIT has reached out to Meta and X for comment.