I know people who have been scammed by middleman ads. Search to buy flowers in a specific area and there’s a good chance the top ad will be a middleman that wi

I know people who have been scammed by middleman ads. Search to buy flowers in a specific area and there’s a good chance the top ad will be a middleman that will take your order and flip it to a local business. You’ll think you’re buying a fancy (expensive) flower arrangement, but the middleman will order something small (and cheap) on your behalf. You overpay while the recipient of the flowers gets something mediocre at best. The exact thing happened to my mother while trying to send flowers for a relative’s funeral. She paid something close to $200, the local shop got a small order, and some grifter got a bunch of easy money for gaming the system. But hey! As long as Google gets their cut for the ad / referral the collateral damage of grifting seniors is just smart business, right?