Cuban Says Meta Runs Deepfake Scam Ads; Documents Point to $16B From Fraud-Linked Ads

U.S. investor and billionaire Mark Cuban, co-founder of the online pharmacy Cost Plus Drugs, says Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, lets through scam ads that use an AI-generated copy of his face and voice. He made the remarks in an August episode of the Pivot podcast, hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. The issue is timely because Reuters reported on Nov. 6, 2025, on internal Meta documents describing revenue from such ads.

Cuban's allegations

The 68-year-old said he receives emails every week from elderly people asking whether his diabetes cure will work or saying they have already paid $294 for it. Cuban has never sold such a product. According to him, some of the ads even carry a disclaimer that the person on screen is AI-generated and the clip is meant as entertainment. He argued that by then the pitch has already worked, and described the company's culture as "the worst of the worst."

What Meta's documents show

The documents described by Reuters indicate that Meta expected roughly $16 billion, or about 10% of its 2024 revenue, to come from ads promoting scams and prohibited products. By the company's own count, users saw about 15 billion "higher risk" ads a day. A late-2024 document valued that category at about $7 billion a year. In a May 2025 presentation, Meta safety staff estimated that its platforms play a part in a third of successful scams in the U.S.

To ban an advertiser, Meta's automated systems must judge the account at least 95% likely to be running a scam, the documents say. Below that threshold, the suspected scammer simply pays more per ad and stays active. The documents also note that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into Meta over advertising tied to financial fraud.

Meta's response

Meta spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters the documents "present a selective view that distorts Meta's approach to fraud and scams," and called the 10% estimate "rough and overly-inclusive." He said user complaints about scam ads had fallen 58% over 18 months and that the company removed more than 134 million scam ads in 2025.