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Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

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Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#211

Post by 9rx »

DonHopkins wrote: post #168
9rx wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't need to offer a refund. It was already priced in. You maybe forgot to ask what was coming in future software updates while standing starry-eyed at the impossibly low price it was being offered at, but they knew it was coming. After all, appropriately specced hardware to be able to do it was already onboard.

> You maybe forgot to ask what was coming in future software updates Who exactly was I supposed to ask that? The check out cashier at the store? The CTO of the company that manufactures it? Who even knows the answer to that question, and how are millions of consumers supposed to find that out and contact them directly, and why are they permitted to reveal proprietary plans if they even know? Your arguments are delusi…

> The check out cashier at the store?

Normally F-150s, and fridges for that matter, are sold not by cashiers, but salesmen. I suppose there isn't any meaningful difference in the end — except, unlike a cashier, salesmen are named as such because there is greater expectation of them being intimately familiar with the product so that they can answer such questions.

If they can't, that's a pretty big red flag. Why would you conduct business with someone who has proven to be shady (or at least incompetent)?

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#212

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #35
cjonas wrote: post #8

At least 50% of the YouTube promoted videos I get are crypto currency scams where some paid actor walks you though deploying an eth contract that empties your wallet. I report every one and nothing changes :(

What if you take YouTube to court

Ideally this but Section 230 guarantees that you will lose.

The laws need to be changed.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#213

Post by swiftcoder »

carlosjobim wrote: post #208
swiftcoder wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We need to start paying for ad-free services. Wake up. Where are all these ad-free services everyone keeps talking about? Social media companies don't even find it worth it to offer an ad-free plan last I checked...

YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, Apple Music, Kagi etc etc

I would submit that maybe the first one qualifies as a social media network

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#214

Post by strogonoff »

malfist wrote: post #107
dahart wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it help if you could? Hasn’t the bottled water industry demonstrated lower standards and more scams and marketing FUD than the EPA?

Water in the pipes is higher standards precisely because we don't accept that the water utility can pump sewage to us 10% of the time.

The problem with this analogy as I see it is that water supply is heavily regulated and uncompetitive due to exactly the fact of it being impossible to switch.

For this to work for the likes of Meta, it would mean elevating Meta’s services to some sort of country-wide public utility, which I’m sure would create probably an even stronger moat than network effects, hindering any competiton.

However, is there such a constraint in case of social media? There are mechanisms and open standards that could allow interoperability between providers who implement them. It seems that it should be possible to leave it up to market forces and competition, but for that we have to have competition and be able to vote with our wallets.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#215

Post by jerf »

zahlman wrote: post #178
jerf wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but observe how that for all three of the things that immediately came to your mind, you have respectively 1. a thing that still has a lot of scams in it (though it may be the best of the three) [1] 2. A thing so full of scams and fake products that using it is already a minefield (one my mother-in-law is already incapable of navigating successfully, based on the number of shirts my family has gotten with lazy-A…

> To forstall any AI debate, let me underline the word "lazy" in the footnote here. Most recently we received a shirt with a very large cobra on it, and the cobra has at least three pupils in each eye (depending on how you count) and some very eye-watering geometry for the sclera between it. Okay, but if it matches the illustration on the storefront , can it really be called a scam?

Fair, I was sloppy there. The cobra isn't a scam itself, it's just a demonstration that it's already a hard place to navigate what with everything that is going on there. A deluge of AI garbage may not be a "scam" in the strictest sense of the term but it still breaks certain unspoken expectations the Boomer generation has about goods and what exactly it is you are buying.

We have also received a number of shirts where AI has been used to create unlicensed NFL shirts and other such actual frauds. And whatever your feeling about IP laws, it was definitely low quality stuff... looked good if you just glanced at it but when you went to look at any particular detail of the shirt it was AI garbage. (I say "AI garbage" precisely because not all stuff from AI is necessarily garbage... but this was.)

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#216

Post by zahlman »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #209
zahlman wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Probably 75% of products you see on instagram ads, you can go find on temu for their actual cost, usually at 80% discount. But when you do buy it on Temu, is it even a legitimate product?

It's the same product.

I understand that. Doesn't answer the question.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#217

Post by zahlman »

ozim wrote: post #195
zahlman wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be clear, the engagement is the problem, yes? We're reasonably secure against zero-click malware from ads by now I would hope?

I think you don’t see ads that are served in there. Those are outright scams like fake investments and not just crypto but outright “buy big company X shares to get rich, photo of celebrity” with celebrities not even knowing they are used for those scam ads - meta doesn’t do shit about it. Zero click malware would be most likely too sophisticated. You click the ad contact people who will tell you where to wire money…

Right. My point is that it still requires on social-engineering someone who reasonably ought to be primed to ignore all ads in the first place.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#218

Post by csomar »

salil999 wrote: post #64
Havoc wrote: post #52

Meta is cooked. It's not just scam portion - their entire strategy is in trouble FB - nobody I know actively uses it anymore. Insta - is being overrun with AI slop and given meta's stated goal of adding more AI interactions on their platforms I doubt they'll even try to get a grip on it let alone succeed Whatsapp & FB messenger - some use but has zero moat over other messengers. It's a completely fungible service in…

I hear this on almost every bad post about Meta. No they are not cooked. They still generate tons of profit and their user base is one of the biggest in the world. They're not going anywhere any time soon.

Just because they generate tons of profit doesn’t mean they are not vulnerable. Tiktok has shown that their position is not as solid like some here tend to believe.

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#219

Post by carlosjobim »

bluGill wrote: post #76
macNchz wrote: post #16

Alongside a password manager and keeping things up to date, using an ad blocker is truly a foundational security practice these days. The big advertising players simply have all of the wrong incentives to control this problem. They could massively reduce the volume of scams advertised on their networks, but it’d be worse for them on two fronts: they’d have to pay for more moderation, and they’d lose billions in reven…

I don't understand why the big advertisers don't scream about this. Facebook gets money from whoever, but the scams dilute the effectiveness of real companies that are not trying to scam you.

Real companies don't give a damn about what they are actually doing. Facebook tells them that their ad which nobody clicked on got them 40 000 new customers. The worker who put the ad on Facebook gets a pat on the back from his boss. The boss gets a raise and maybe a promotion. Leadership gets shown numbers of how great advertising on Meta is and doesn't take 5 minutes to check them. If sales are low it is those god damned customers, better hike prices and reduce product quality to show the bastards!

Re: Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams

#220

Post by Havoc »

clickety_clack wrote: post #55
Havoc wrote: post #52

Meta is cooked. It's not just scam portion - their entire strategy is in trouble FB - nobody I know actively uses it anymore. Insta - is being overrun with AI slop and given meta's stated goal of adding more AI interactions on their platforms I doubt they'll even try to get a grip on it let alone succeed Whatsapp & FB messenger - some use but has zero moat over other messengers. It's a completely fungible service in…

Disagree on WhatsApp, it’s the de facto standard messaging app outside the US.

> it’s the de facto standard messaging app outside the US.

Agreed and in combination with FB messenger they've got most of the market...but what of it?

They're literally competing against a donation supported app. Pause for a second and think about what that says about how little direct money there is in the space.

Plus it's E2E encrypted & has significant user privacy expectations so significant limitations on how you can leverage it for their adtech biz

I'm not saying whatsapp is dead or a failure as a messenger. It's a great addition to round out an ecosystem but don't think it's any good as the primary load bearing pillar of a 1.5 trillion company in the same way search is for google

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