Google is finally fighting against fraudulent ads / scammers. Google Adwords, their advertising campaign has always been the breeding place for con artists luring innocent people into ‘get rich quick’ schemes. Google emerging victorious in this campaign against scam artists may take a long time given the nature of the internet. For instance, the scammer can launch a new website, new name and same old game. So Google cannot intelligently automate the process of curbing the scammers. What they should do is employ stricter measures @ the root level, that is Adwords acceptance level. I still remember the Adwords Interview I attended (in India in my college days), though I didn’t make it at the end, I enjoyed the ‘word challenges’ imposed, pretty fun!

The next time Google accepts an ad via Adwords, they should do a quick background check on new websites and their targeted keywords. For instance, when the scammer purchases keywords for ‘Cheap iPhone’ with description text saying ‘Buy 3GS iPhones @ Wholesale prices of $149’ – it clearly is a scam, a different kind wherein an iPhone may be sent but a cheap, duplicate item manufactured in China. I once received such an iPhone on eBay and I fought back to get my money back. Luring innocent customers into fake products is something Google should tackle too and not just the ‘get rich quick’ scammers. Google Adsense provides no way of blocking those flash based ads trying to sell fake iPhones. You can see those ads towards the right which says ‘iPhone 3GS for $149’ and leads to a website selling fake Chinese IPhones. Buyer beware is all I could say this holiday season in a tough economic situation.