Fresh from the official Google blog, we have news that Google is taking a group of online scammers to court.
We’ve all seen the ads: “Use Google to Make 1000s of Dollars!” “Easy Cash with Google: You Could be Making up to $978 a Day Working from Home!” Finally, the search giant has announced it’s going to do something to protect its trademark and help spare a few suckers from getting scalped. Google is suing Pacific WebWorks and a rash of unnamed defendants.
In a joint post from search quality engineer Jason Morrison and senior litigation counsel Stacey Wexler, the company stated, “Google hasn’t created or endorsed any of the sites like those described in our complaint. Misleading ads try to take advantage of consumers… As far as we can tell, thousands of people have been tricked into sending payment information and being charged hidden fees by questionable operations.”
The scammers’ URLs will be de-indexed, and Google will also be permanently disabling AdWords accounts linked to poor user experiences. But, as Morrison and Wexler note, treating the symptoms of a scam circle is a bit like playing Whack-A-Mole. Google can bash away at the digital manifestations of these shady companies, but it’s nearly impossible to get rid of them forever without going after the people involved.
We hope the lawsuits go well and help to get these scammers off our tubes. Here’s a brief list from Google of names associated with scam artists. These companies are not affiliated with Google in any way:
- Google Adwork
- Google ATM
- Google Biz Kit
- Google Cash
- Earn Google Cash Kit
- Google Fortune
- Google Marketing Kit
- Google Profits
- The Home Business Kit for Google
- Google StartUp Kit
- Google Works
As always, be smart online, and remember that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is. For more tips on how to avoid getting ripped off on the Internet, check out an informative Google blog post from this summer.
