Online ads, in particular social placements, are a scam selling scams. The amount of money just evaporating on fake buys for big companies, while the ads you see are almost all grey-market scams. I opened my Instagram right now to prove that point. AI renderings of non-existent products from somewhere, actual cocaine, and online gambling for the trifecta.
GoodBot, in collaboration with Check My Ads Institute, has published a new policy brief titled “The Scam Tax: How Canadians Pay the Price of Weak Platform & Ad Tech Governance”. This brief examines how the digital advertising ecosystem has normalized scams. For example, Meta has allowed 15 billion scam ads to be served each day to its users. These scams account for $32.6 billion USD in losses to consumers. The issue is clear: the incentives are upside down, and enforcement is too weak or worse, non-existent. Platforms profit from ad volume, while scammers make money off of unsuspecting people. The result: fraud continues, at scale. This failure to change the structure is the “Scam Tax”: it's a cost paid by users, small businesses, and communities — all while the systems that cause harm keep growing. If we want to see change, we have to start treating it like the infrastructure problem it is. So great to partner with Renee Black and Aya Alshahwany 🫶 https://lnkd.in/e-TmUfbv
