> It's interesting how easily Google results rankings are manipulated by bad actors, and how unvetted the scams are in paid adverts on and through Google.

Well, SEO, I get that this kind of gaming is hard to prevent, not at Google's scale.

But the AdWords scams? Or all the other fake ad scams, chumboxes and god knows what? The complete lack of audits around something that actually causes money to change hands should be outright banned.

At the high end of ads, think large brand TV spots, you got entire teams of lawyers involved to make sure licensing, actor releases, technical details, corporate identity and a myriad of other things are taken care of.

But at the low end? Some rando from St Petersburg can post an ad for a book "uncovering Western lies about NATO expansion", some Indian can post an ad for "Norton Removal", some American an ad for a f2p game with content that clearly does not describe the actual gameplay or some Chinese can post an ad for penile enlargement pills - and none of the four will get even one human eye on the ad before the campaign goes live and the ads are displayed to actual users, even though all four either violate Western laws outright or are at least banned by the providers/networks.

And the problem isn't just limited to Google, Youtube, AdWords, Unity Ads [1], Taboola [2], Outbrain [3], Facebook/Insta [4] - it's everywhere, the entire low range of ads is infested to the core. Self-service ad platforms should be shut down, period - the industry has shown that "self regulation" doesn't work.

[1] https://discussions.unity.com/t/does-anyone-screen-these-ads...

[2] https://www.vice.com/en/article/taboolas-content-chum-boxes-...

[3] https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2021/01/the-outbrain-drain-why-ne...

[4] https://www.vice.com/en/article/instagram-and-facebook-are-o...

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eek2121 4 days ago | parent [-]

Yes, and that same lack of lawyers/friction is what also allows legitimate small businesses to thrive. I've worked for many, and out of those many, none of them had lawyers involved at all.

It is all about balance. Google could do more here, however the answer is not as obvious as you might think. Especially in an age where identities get stolen often and the lag time on catching said fraud is quite long.

The issue is that the entities mentioned are doing...nothing at all. Not even basic MANUAL identity checks and payment checks. Automated checks work very well until they don't.

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mschuster91 4 days ago | parent [-]

> Google could do more here, however the answer is not as obvious as you might think.

Oh it is. A basic background check alone done by an actual human to see if the business is actually real, let's say this costs Google 1h @ 40 dollars plus 20 dollars for credit bureau fees. Google can offload that cost to the advertiser - even for a small cookie store, that's hardly an expense.

And after that, vet the campaign material for each asset. When you have 200 dollars in ad spend (which isn't much), 10 dollars should go pretty far in having a human see if the "pizza store" didn't just place an ad for penile enlargement.

> Automated checks work very well until they don't.

The key thing is, the entire ad industry is amoral. No one cares about fraud or brand reputation any more, not when you see chumbox ads on "reputable" newspapers. So everyone seems to think "why should I leave a few dollars on the table?".

	▲	bcrl 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		At what point does Know Your Customer kick in for ads?