90% of Google adverts for ISAs and bonds may be scams, Search Giant Told
Google, the world's largest search engine, has been warned that up to 90% of Individual Savings Account (ISA) ads are most likely fraudulent. This statement is based on an analysis of the behavior of most such websites.
The Internet giant reported that the vast majority of resources advertised on requests for investment in bonds and ISA continue to work a few hours after they are closed, while the URL of the page remains almost the same.
Companies involved in investments require the government to actively deal with fraudsters, since before the end of April, when the tax period ends, the British are going to invest in Individual Savings Accounts. The amount of such investments is estimated at billions of pounds, on which scammers try to cash in, attracting people with a high level of return on investment, which means big profits.
At the same time, the British lose billions every year due to the activities of such scammers. If last year, due to the click on a search engine links, investors were deceived by about 1 billion pounds, then this year, according to forecasts by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), about 20 billion pounds will be lost by such activity! In connection with this state of affairs, the organization proposes to tighten the regulation and liability of companies, since most cases of investor fraud occur after victims find sites through an online search.
The reason for this is that Google does not strongly control the compliance of advertisers with the rules regarding the implementation of financial activities and, in particular, attracting investments that can only be carried out by licensed companies. The company does not pay enough attention to checking advertising before publication, which contributes to scam activity in attracting potential cheated investors.
Some experts in the field of finance and investments predicted a similar surge of fraudulent before the end of the tax year. For example, Mark Taber, in just a few weeks of observation, found more than a hundred advertising campaigns on Google that violate financial laws. Almost all fraudulent detected were quickly removed from the search engine’s advertising results, but a few hours later copies of those resources appeared.
FCA, which has created a blacklist of scammers sites, is responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector, but this list is not an effective method for combating financial scams, since it contains a small number of sites that are not immediately listed into it, but even after more than one week .
The fraud of investors on individual savings accounts thrives on the favorable ground for this lack of regulation and control by the government and Internet advertising companies.
Source www.independent.co.uk
