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Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

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Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#181

Post by HarryHirsch »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #104
urbandw311er wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an underrated comment. Google are enabling fraud on a massive scale by permitting the hijacking of established names and brands. Often brands or names that some small family company has worked for years to build a reputation for. We do indeed live in a world where tech and capitalism have birthed some sort of horrific offspring that’s choking us all.

But that's only part of it. Google will also happily serve up ads for fake bank websites that will steal your credentials. Google will happily serve up ads for a lot of malicious content on the Internet. Google are not only making it worse because of advertising, they're making it worse by facilitating scammers and fraudsters and various other criminals. All because their systems are so automated as to eschew any rev…

Let me correct that for you - the systems are automated to provide plausible deniability, just like with the recent Hertz scandal. As soon as you admit there may be a problem with the automation the door is cracked open to admit a lawsuit in. It's the equivalent of "computer says", and the legal system is greased to permit such abuse.

The US doesn't have a smalltime corruption problem, you don't bribe your local cop, it has a bigmoney corruption problem as seen (again) here.

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#182

Post by pfisherman »

prottog wrote: post #176
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a real and thorny problem seems to have a trivial answer.. there's a good chance the trivial answer is incorrect. Two of my favorite H. L. Mencken quotes: "There's always an easy solution to every human problem; Neat, plausible and wrong." "The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake." And this…

Ironic, coming from LBJ.

Why ironic? Honest question. I do not know enough about the career of LBJ to get it. My understanding is that he was an extremely effective legislator. A bit of a bastard, but very effective.

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#183

Post by nico »

curiousllama wrote: post #152
vorpalhex wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a real and thorny problem seems to have a trivial answer.. there's a good chance the trivial answer is incorrect. Amazon has a system like this, where you can "claim" listings. It's how scam products get all those five star reviews for some other profuct. They find a t-shirt or some little thing doing well and file claim after claim until they win the listing.

Yea, this is the answer. If it’s easy to file a complaint, scammers will just file a million complaints to (wrongly) win 1%, and walk away with the $

Well, even if it’s hard… look at accident attorneys in the US. They might not technically be scammers, but man does it feel close to it.

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#184

Post by partiallypro »

perihelions wrote: post #59

Simple legislative fix: entitle the victim (small business) to quickly and easily claim a trademark infringement on an ad, and claw back 100% of Google's revenue on that ad. And let Google be civilly liable, if they choose to contest such a trademark claim and they're in the wrong. Inspired by YouTube's DMCA claim system (or my superficial understanding of it). If there's a "bug bounty" on fraud, there will be an ent…

Google is already fairly strict this, at least for bigger company trademark keywords. It falls through the cracks with you are talking about SMBs.

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#185

Post by xhkkffbf »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #114
mellosouls wrote: post #68

Reminds me of the guy who made his shed the top rated restaurant on Trip Advisor https://www.vice.com/en/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-to... https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shed_at_Dulwich

That was incredibly funny. I can even agree with Trip Advisors' reasoning that their main concern are not fake restaurants, but dodgy reviews. Nevertheless, this never should have been allowed to slip through the cracks. It wasn't just a make pretend great London eatery on Trip Advisors. It was fucking number 1 in a city with literally 10s of thousands rated restaurants.

Think about it. Pushing a fake restaurant to number 1 is not that hard. No real people eat at it and so no real person writes a less-than-five-star review. Real restaurants have off nights. Or maybe they have a snooty patron that is overly picky. Real restaurants-- even the best of them-- get a few one star reviews.

So if you're looking at averages, there's no way that real can compete with fake.

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#186

Post by input_sh »

theshrike79 wrote: post #120
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's only part of it. Google will also happily serve up ads for fake bank websites that will steal your credentials. Google will happily serve up ads for a lot of malicious content on the Internet. Google are not only making it worse because of advertising, they're making it worse by facilitating scammers and fraudsters and various other criminals. All because their systems are so automated as to eschew any rev…

Yep, but try to put Google ads on a page with naked or scantily dressed people, you'll get banned real fast. =) Stealing and impersonation good, sex bad.

I don't think sex bad is a Google problem as much the US problem. After all, it's not just ads and it's not just Google.

People in the US have this puritanical view on sex -> it is inherited by Silicon Valley -> it gets forced onto the rest of us.

Since the rest of us are forced to rely on US-based products in some capacity (app stores, payment processors, CDNs...), you can't make anything sex-related even in places where sex work is viewed far more openly than in the US.

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#187

Post by [deleted] »

perihelions wrote: post #59

Simple legislative fix: entitle the victim (small business) to quickly and easily claim a trademark infringement on an ad, and claw back 100% of Google's revenue on that ad. And let Google be civilly liable, if they choose to contest such a trademark claim and they're in the wrong. Inspired by YouTube's DMCA claim system (or my superficial understanding of it). If there's a "bug bounty" on fraud, there will be an ent…

[deleted]

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#188

Post by themitigating »

justin_oaks wrote: post #177
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a real and thorny problem seems to have a trivial answer.. there's a good chance the trivial answer is incorrect. Two of my favorite H. L. Mencken quotes: "There's always an easy solution to every human problem; Neat, plausible and wrong." "The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake." And this…

Law makers seem to universally ignore the unintended consequences of the laws they propose or endorse. I wish there were a requirement to list all the foreseeable consequences of any law that's proposed, both positive consequences and negative ones.

"all the foreseeable consequences"

If this was feasible why wouldn't you do this for every decision in life.

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#189

Post by stephencanon »

bsenftner wrote: post #101
gumby wrote: post #14

Parasites like this have also colonized plumbing, locksmiths etc, as has been discussed on this site in the past. Seems like straight up fraud to me.

My questions surround: where's the (society saving) "parasite lawyers" going to town in a shark frenzy eating these criminals business models? It is not as if these small business fraud scams are not omnipresent in modern society... why are not attorneys making bank and DA's making headlines shutting these clear and obvious public criminals down?

Because Google and the other ad networks have successfully convinced everyone in power that they aren’t the scammers, and that the people paying for the ads are. Those people are tiny fly-by-night operators with nothing to lose (and not worth anyone going after).

Re: Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result

#190

Post by tankerkiller125 »

shas3 wrote: post #162

In India, Google search for a pretty specific string, " ambulance phone number," showed up a bunch of scammy ads. In our distraught state (an elderly relative had just had a fall), we accidentally called the top ad which turned out to be a scam ambulance service. A beat up van showed up, without any EMT, a sketchy stretcher without straps, and no tracks or fasteners to hold it down inside the van. We were outraged an…

Sounds like India needs a single number for all emergency services instead of the fractured system they have now.
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