3 ms·

In genuine scams, yes. But nobody will accidentally pay millions for a business license that's also available for free.

• jacquesm 5y ago
  That's true, that's outside of the expected range. But confusion of authority is the same principle at this level or at a higher one it doesn't really matter. This particular context has a low expected value but the same principle in another context can cost very large amounts of money. Recently a big dutch retailer got caught out by a small thing, a suppliers administrative email got hacked and the company as a result wired a couple of million to the wrong recipient. The real problem in this case is that Google has a perverse incentive to allow these ads-as-serps. Personally I think Google should be named as a co-conspirator in fraud cases like these. That would get them to clear this up pronto.
  • 6510 5y ago
    Some "service" numbers in the Netherlands advertise in google by showing a real phone number (for a gov institution or a business) that links to their paid number. People wait for 10-30 min then are call-forwarded to the real number. They may make multiple calls like that until the phone bill arrives that lists on average "40 euro service numbers" but even then they might not see though the scam, even if you see though it is hard to not just repeat the mistake. I suspect they steal a measured amount of money and time per user as from what I hear its always 30-50 euro.
    • jacquesm 5y ago
      Yes, I've seen those too. I've already alerted OPTA to this and have sent multiple messages to Google, nothing however has changed so far. This is a total scam and should be dealt with accordingly.
• 6510 5y ago
  Ransom should work.
  • 6510 5y ago
    You don't have to like it. If the government asks for information you cant expect 100% to just say NO.