SOCIAL-MEDIA giant Facebook has been found profiting from fake ads and scams by con artists just weeks before it is due to give evidence to Parliament’s fake-news inquiry.

Currently, anyone with a Facebook page and a credit card can pay to promote a post in people’s news feeds and to target specific individuals, based on users’ activity.

Facebook’s guidelines state that adverts must not be “deceptive, false or misleading,” but users have continued to report scams promoted in their news feeds.