How broken is Google’s ad ecosystem? I recently searched for “Facebook” in Chrome. The top sponsored result pointed to an epic scam advertisement:
It was a convincing scam advertisement – the link was a Facebook link, but it turned out to be a redirect which launched a bogus Apple Support script (if I had been using a Windows PC, it would have been Microsoft Support instead):
I didn’t click the “allow” button or call the numbers, but the scam is well established, according to the FTC:
Tech support scammers want you to believe you have a serious problem with your computer, like a virus. They want you to pay for tech support services you don’t need, to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. They often ask you to pay by wiring money, putting money on a gift card, prepaid card, or cash reload card, or using cryptocurrency or a money transfer app because they know those types of payments can be hard to reverse.
I clicked the back button to get back to the search results. Clicking the “more actions” icon next to the result, Google showed an “advertiser identity verified” badge leading to an overseas scammer.
If Google can’t detect the most obvious, high-profile scams, imagine how many less obvious fake sites and phishing attempts run rampant on the platform?
I talk a lot about Amazon Seller scams, which are different – usually it’s scammers claiming untold easy money and passive income using Amazon FBA or Amazon KDP, and they make money through bogus “masterclass” subscriptions, YouTube ad revenue, and affiliate links.
But there is a common denominator in the search scams and Amazon scams: Google. Google owns search, and its owns YouTube, and the scams proliferate because Google doesn’t police misinformation and is only too happy to take advertising money from scammers regardless of the consequences.