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Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

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Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#111

Post by amelius »

techrat wrote: post #106
FriedrichN wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People think I'm paranoid checking domains, certificates, and bank numbers but it's a small price to pay as you found out. You lost $250, some lose thousands. This stuff needs to be regulated, companies like Google need to be held accountable for what they serve up to users. No more hiding behind this shield of "we're just a platform" when they damn well know they're the platform. It's all fun and games until your (g…

> This stuff needs to be regulated, Regulated? Fraud is illegal. It needs to be PROSECUTED.

Perhaps if we all start using all-caps, somebody in government will hear us. You are right, of course.

Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#112

Post by naturalauction »

dom111 wrote: post #81
ollybee wrote: post #43

This does not seem be a problem in the UK, searches topics that might be prone to this all seem to give the correct .gov.uk site as the first result with no ads that could be described as misleading. I wonder if the UK government, advertising standards agencies and trading standards authorities have put more pressure on google? Or perhaps the legal landscape here makes it untenable to operate such a scam business.

I just shared with another commenter that this caught my Mum recently[0], but a quick search for the same terms "change driving license address" doesn't show anything now. I did report it at the time (and suggest other family members to do the same) but from a numerous list of sponsored results to now see none is a surprise! [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27151919

I think it's user dependent, I turned off AdBlock and got this https://i.imgur.com/hyWlOpJ.png . Only one visible result at 100% zoom on a 1920x1080 display.

Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#113

Post by varispeed »

insta_anon wrote: post #77

I have a hard time trying to understand why governments don’t address these scams more proactively. There is a related issue when you register a new company here in Germany: As soon as the new entity is added to the company house (called “Handelsregister”), you will start to receive fake invoices from scam companies. These invoice look very similar to official ones and some even use the official seal of the state (se…

My theory is that since those crimes are non violent, there is a silent approval, as long as there is no massive public outrage and associated PR costs for a government. The reasoning is that the cost to the society is lower than if you were going to process those people through legal system and then keep them in jail.

If these crimes were costing the society more than keeping perpetrators locked up then situation would have changed. Another reason is that some people, by their nature, just cannot have a "normal" job and so they hustle. If you take away non-violent options, then there is a chance they'd turn to something violent to achieve their goals and that would be costly.

Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#115

Post by rightbyte »

underwater wrote: post #91
rapht wrote: post #83

These kinds of articles always boil down to how Google are not doing their job properly anymore, be it by presenting results that do not include scams, content farms and the like, or by systematically pushing ads (including dubious ones) over organic results, all in the interest of their ad business. I'm probably not technical enough, but I'm always left wondering how no one created a 'bettergoogle.com' that makes a…

Because Google would sue them out of existence?

If you could sue Google for search ranking Google would go bankrupt.

Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#116

Post by vimacs2 »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #62

Always block all ads. Make absolutely no exceptions. There is no reason to feel guilty about doing this.

Absolutely. I consider unsolicited ads a form of violence and laugh at anybody who even tries to shame me into watching any of them. As for the accusation of effectively stealing content via refusing to allow for their (shitty) form of monetisation, unless in the rare case that a company is a workers cooperative, I don't want to hear any bullshit about robbery when you are purposely extracting surplus value out of your workers without democratic agency or fair compensation.

Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#117

Post by raister »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #108
raister wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You usually login in the West Coast, then, all of a sudden, you started login in the East Coast -- hey, GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, isn't that ODD????????????????? I can't believe they act as they don't know what's going on and have no means to deter this. They SHOULD BE LIABLE!

No, that isn't really odd. People travel. Should my account be locked everytime I visit family? I permanently lost access to may aim account a while back because I tried to connect while traveling out of country.

The key point here is that it's impossible to travel long distances in a short amount of time... Of course people travel. What's not normal is to log in in Miami and in the next minute log in Seattle....

Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#118

Post by jokethrowaway »

insta_anon wrote: post #77

I have a hard time trying to understand why governments don’t address these scams more proactively. There is a related issue when you register a new company here in Germany: As soon as the new entity is added to the company house (called “Handelsregister”), you will start to receive fake invoices from scam companies. These invoice look very similar to official ones and some even use the official seal of the state (se…

Because the government doesn't have an economic incentive dealing with small fraud.

That's not what decides elections. If there is too much crime that can be an extra excuse to raise more taxes.

I reported frauds to the police in two cases and they didn't do anything despite having all the evidence and location of the perpetrators (even after arresting one of them in one case).

A civil case didn't work as well because they owned nothing on paper.

The only way to get justice is to pay someone to break their knees or steal what they stole from you from them.

Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#119

Post by wccrawford »

habosa wrote: post #84

Clearly these should be banned because they violate Google's policy, so I don't argue that. But on a more general level, I don't really have a problem with companies offering to fill out government forms for me in exchange for my money. For instance last year I fought a traffic ticket by myself. It's not hard, but you do have to fill out like 3 different forms and mail them in. Totally free besides the stamps. There…

The real ones don't make it look like you're on the official site. They clearly lay out what they're doing and why they charge what they charge.

It's not a scam if the customer is properly informed of the situation.

Re: Ads are impersonating government websites in Google results, despite ban

#120

Post by Macha »

habosa wrote: post #84

Clearly these should be banned because they violate Google's policy, so I don't argue that. But on a more general level, I don't really have a problem with companies offering to fill out government forms for me in exchange for my money. For instance last year I fought a traffic ticket by myself. It's not hard, but you do have to fill out like 3 different forms and mail them in. Totally free besides the stamps. There…

I think companies who are legitimately about making the process easier can avoid can make that clear in their naming and marketing - "Foobar traffic appeals service - We make fighting tickets easier, 80% success rate" is hard to mistake for the government, while "Traffic Appeals Service, file your traffic appeal here" is a lot harder to notice that you're using a third party
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