Attorney General Neronha sues Meta for fraudulent advertisements
Published on Thursday, October 22, 2026
Attorney General Peter F. Neronha today filed a lawsuit against Meta for allegedly failing to curtail advertisements for fraudulent products and financial scams on its platforms, despite representing to the public that it engages in sophisticated efforts to prevent such ads. Rhode Island is the first state to file a lawsuit against Meta for this alleged behavior, following a similar lawsuit brought by Santa Clara County in California.
The complaint, filed in Providence County Superior Court, alleges that Meta continues these practices because they generate substantial revenue, despite knowing that scam ads cause significant financial harm to vulnerable consumers. Meta’s alleged conduct violates Rhode Island’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA), and the Complaint seeks penalties and injunctive relief under that statute.
“For a company that engages so many Rhode Islanders and Americans, maintaining high standards for consumer safety should be of the utmost importance,” said Attorney General Neronha. “As alleged, Meta knowingly exposed vulnerable users to fraud and scams, and made enormous profits in doing so. When companies, big or small, take advantage of Rhode Island consumers, this Office will do everything within our authority to hold them to account.”
As alleged in the Complaint, Meta has helped create, refine, and distribute advertisements that promoted fraudulent schemes, deceptive offers, impersonation scams, fake investment opportunities, false Medicare and Social Security benefit offers, ineffective or dangerous health supplements or treatments, and other unlawful or deceptive conduct directed at consumers, including consumers in Rhode Island. Importantly, Meta provided design assistance, audience-selection tools, targeting capabilities, optimization systems, delivery services, analytics, and related services that enabled advertisers to identify, engage, and repeatedly solicit consumers likely to respond to fraud ads. As alleged, Meta knowingly and intentionally used extensive accountholder data to help advertisers target vulnerable consumers who are most likely to engage with scam ads. In particular, at-risk groups like senior citizens have lost substantial sums of money to fraud ads they encounter on Meta platforms.
In 2025, Reuters reported that about 10% of Meta’s annual ad revenue ($16 billion) comes from ads for scams or restricted goods, that Meta knew this fact, and that Meta devised ways of further profiting from such ads while telling the public that it developed sophisticated methods to detect, remove, and prevent fraud. Further, Reuters reported that Meta knows based on its user data which consumers are most vulnerable to fraud or scam ads and uses this knowledge to help advertisers to fine tune their ads and reach their target audiences.
As further alleged, Meta showed users an estimated 15 billion ads containing clear signs of being fraudulent every day, a fact of which Meta was aware, and that ads that “present higher legal risk” yielded $7 billion annually in revenue. Additionally, Meta represented to consumers and regulators that it developed robust tools to identify and remove scam ads. In reality, the Company turned a blind eye to fraud findings, and in other cases, refused to implement tools to identify and remove fraudulent ads, allowing scam ads to proliferate. As further alleged, rather than removing some fraudulent ads, Meta charged companies a premium to display them, generating even more revenue from proliferating these scams.
The State is seeking a declaratory judgment that Meta violated the DTPA; injunctive relief; restitution to affected Rhode Island consumers; civil penalties for each violation of the DTPA; disgorgement of Defendants’ unjust enrichment, benefits, and ill-gotten gains, plus interest, acquired as a result of the alleged unlawful conduct; and the appointment of a receiver, auditor, or monitor to ensure Meta’s compliance with relief ordered by the Court.
Today’s lawsuit follows an August 2026 multistate settlement with Meta Platforms, Inc. of up to $17.1 billion – one of the largest state consumer protection settlements in history – under which Rhode Island will receive at least $49.4 and up to $64.5 million. As part of that settlement, Meta must implement a sweeping set of safety features designed to protect children on Instagram and Facebook.
Deceptive Trade Practices Act
In 2021, Attorney General Neronha worked with the General Assembly to pass legislation that restored the authority of the Office of the Attorney General to protect Rhode Island consumers against violations of the DTPA. Other efforts led by the Attorney General under the DTPA include a lawsuit against a residential solar company for allegedly scamming Rhode Islanders, a suit against a contractor for alleged unlawful behavior, halting a Certificate of Good Standing scheme, as well as other investigations involving real estate schemes, auto dealerships, and non-compliance with lead safety laws within rental units, among other efforts.
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