David McWilliams on how social media giants are making billions from fake ads

First up on this week’s episode of Inside Business, we look at new research this week from Revolut suggests that social media companies made €32 million in revenue from scam ads to Irish users in 2025. The figure for Europe as a whole was a whopping €4.4 billion. Host Ciarán Hancock is joined by Irish Times reporter Hugh Dooley to takes us through the headline findings from the Revolut research, while Irish Times columnist and economist David McWilliams discusses how his image was used by scammers last year to con people out of money. Also, research this week from the ESRI suggests the property industry is using ghost bids and other tactics to create a frenzy and nudge buyers into increasing their bids for properties here. It found participants’ bids were pushed higher in open auctions managed by estate agents or online platforms than in sealed bid auctions. Owen Reilly is a leading estate agent in Dublin, and he discusses how the research chimed with his own experience in the industry. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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David McWilliams on how social media giants are making billions from fake ads is an episode from Irish Times Inside Business by The Irish Times.

This episode is 32:09 long.

This episode was published on Feb 11, 2026.

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