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.

> 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?".