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So, I craft a search where the search query is “call 1 800 scam”, then I buy a google ad with key word of “ticketmaster help”, the ad links to real ticketmaster

So, I craft a search where the search query is “call 1 800 scam”, then I buy a google ad with key word of “ticketmaster help”, the ad links to real ticketmaster with my query, and google shows that ad to someone having trouble and hey presto they call my scam line at 4 quid a minute from their mobile? Yuck all round. I mean ticketmaster is just a sin eater for greedy popstars but yuck ..

albertgoeswoof 1y ago
But why does google allow unverified owners of a domain to buy ads for it? Surely only ticketmaster or agencies approved by ticket master should be allowed to do this?
- fckgw 1y ago
  Not necessarily, if you have an affiliate program or something like that you could buy ads for, say, eBay using your affiliate link in the hopes of you generating more profit than the ads cost.
  - superb_dev 1y ago
    There are also still plenty of businesses with a Facebook page as their homepage
- progbits 1y ago
  Because most of the ads are created by external ad agencies, and the people involved are not competent enough to do any verification. Source: I've also thought this was ridiculous and asked someone working on the adsense team. Apparently tried enforcing some domain verification mechanism in an experiment, but most companies and agencies struggled to get the verification done and of course the $ metrics on this launch dropped, causing execs to force them to stop.
  - simonw 1y ago
    Maybe a partial solution here would be to offer some kind of "domain locking" option? Allow sites that are heavy targets of this kind of scam - like ticketmaster - to add a "AdSense: locked" line to their robots.txt (or similar) - if that line is present then advertisers have to go through an additional domain verification step in order to place an ad.
    - stevenjgarner 1y ago
      I like this idea. I would love to hear from Google why they would not do this. Anyone know why Google / Facebook et al would not want to do this?
      - sceptic123 1y ago
        Money
        SeriousM 1y ago
        Money. And no one died because of this behaviour. So why change a running cash-machine...
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- charlieyu1 1y ago
  There was a time when you search for WhatsApp in Google the first sponsored result is a scam site
  - fckgw 1y ago
    If you search for "HP Support" or "Dell Phone Number" you will get a scam site 50% of the time now.
  - netsharc 1y ago
    One time an article about Facebook logins got to #1 and its comments were full of people mad that Facebook changed their website yet again, how can they login to Facebook, waah, waah!
jancsika 1y ago
> Yuck all round. Yes, but also it's an impressive digital Jedi mind trick on a website. signs a question mark with hand "This is the support number you're looking for." And the victim is extra primed here because so many companies make it nearly impossible to talk to a human. Yikes! Almost seems like there's room here for a grey hat to come in and use this trick to do a good faith job trying to help the customer through their problem. Then tell them at the end that a recent anti-trust suit requires them to tell the customer about alternate independent venues in their area where they can support live music.
- inetknght 1y ago
  > Then tell them at the end that a recent anti-trust suit requires them to... Bonus points if you point to the actual anti-trust suit! https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-live-nation-ticketmaster-monopolizing-markets-across-live-concert https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-s...
- potholereseller 1y ago
  > Almost seems like there's room here for a grey hat to come in and ... ... call the scam numbers to tie up their staff and prevent them from talking to potential victims. Someone like Kitboga could do this at scale. Where there's a phone number, there's a way.
fckgw 1y ago
Exactly. And when you try and help these people and explain that you didn't actually call Ticketmaster support they will tell you that they found the phone number on the official Ticketmaster website and Google said it was a verified link. Here's a real example from the same thing happening on FB (don't call that number) https://i.redd.it/w9htjqflgjle1.jpeg https://i.redd.it/w9htjqflgjle1.jpeg
- ninkendo 1y ago
  Completely unrelated tangent: Jesus Christ Reddit is such a cesspit. Tried tapping that link on mobile, got a screen to view the corresponding post. Tapped it, and I got taken to the App Store. No thanks, force quit the App Store and go back. Now I get a full screen notice on the original Reddit tab saying “didn’t go where you expected? Next time try the long press!” With instructions to not use private browsing and to long press any link and open in safari. (Wha? You, Reddit, are what are trying to force me to use your app!) So I long press like they say, open in new tab, and what do I see? A large blank page that just says “REDDIT” in all caps, with the button “Get the app” on the bottom. The link was just to “reddit.app.link” the whole time. Can’t a company who has a website, just … let me use the website? At every possible turn, Reddit HATES anyone using Reddit from a browser. They will ruin every single aspect of the website they possibly can to try to push you to the app. The entirety of reddit.com seems to be just a broken honeypot to get you to use the app instead. I just can’t fathom how a company can be that broken. Just delete the Reddit website, it would make more sense.
  - KronisLV 1y ago
    > The entirety of redit.com seems to be just a broken honeypot to get you to use the app instead. I just can’t fathom how a company can be that broken. It's their intention to have the website be a funnel so that they can get more mobile users. I sometimes use https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com, though it doesn't look that great on mobile, maybe there are some other alternatives.
    - pjc50 1y ago
amelius 1y ago
On top of that, you receive private information about people from Google, because if someone calls your number, then you know that they were on ticketmaster. Replace ticketmaster by e.g. a swingers club, and now Google's ad businessmodel is in real trouble because it leaks sensitive information.
nothrabannosir 1y ago
> ticketmaster is just a sin eater for greedy popstars Apparently Live Nation owns many performance venues and leverages their power in that market to gain an advantage in the ticket sales market. “Sell through us or you won’t be allowed to play at any famous venue in this city” kind of deal. Don’t have any sources beyond “heard it on a podcast” though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

albertgoeswoof 1y ago

But why does google allow unverified owners of a domain to buy ads for it? Surely only ticketmaster or agencies approved by ticket master should be allowed to do this?

fckgw 1y ago
Not necessarily, if you have an affiliate program or something like that you could buy ads for, say, eBay using your affiliate link in the hopes of you generating more profit than the ads cost.
- superb_dev 1y ago
  There are also still plenty of businesses with a Facebook page as their homepage
progbits 1y ago
Because most of the ads are created by external ad agencies, and the people involved are not competent enough to do any verification. Source: I've also thought this was ridiculous and asked someone working on the adsense team. Apparently tried enforcing some domain verification mechanism in an experiment, but most companies and agencies struggled to get the verification done and of course the $ metrics on this launch dropped, causing execs to force them to stop.
- simonw 1y ago
  Maybe a partial solution here would be to offer some kind of "domain locking" option? Allow sites that are heavy targets of this kind of scam - like ticketmaster - to add a "AdSense: locked" line to their robots.txt (or similar) - if that line is present then advertisers have to go through an additional domain verification step in order to place an ad.
  - stevenjgarner 1y ago
    I like this idea. I would love to hear from Google why they would not do this. Anyone know why Google / Facebook et al would not want to do this?
    - sceptic123 1y ago
      Money
      - SeriousM 1y ago
        Money. And no one died because of this behaviour. So why change a running cash-machine...
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
charlieyu1 1y ago
There was a time when you search for WhatsApp in Google the first sponsored result is a scam site
- fckgw 1y ago
  If you search for "HP Support" or "Dell Phone Number" you will get a scam site 50% of the time now.
- netsharc 1y ago
  One time an article about Facebook logins got to #1 and its comments were full of people mad that Facebook changed their website yet again, how can they login to Facebook, waah, waah!

jancsika 1y ago

> Yuck all round. Yes, but also it's an impressive digital Jedi mind trick on a website. signs a question mark with hand "This is the support number you're looking for." And the victim is extra primed here because so many companies make it nearly impossible to talk to a human. Yikes! Almost seems like there's room here for a grey hat to come in and use this trick to do a good faith job trying to help the customer through their problem. Then tell them at the end that a recent anti-trust suit requires them to tell the customer about alternate independent venues in their area where they can support live music.

inetknght 1y ago
> Then tell them at the end that a recent anti-trust suit requires them to... Bonus points if you point to the actual anti-trust suit! https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-live-nation-ticketmaster-monopolizing-markets-across-live-concert https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-s...
potholereseller 1y ago
> Almost seems like there's room here for a grey hat to come in and ... ... call the scam numbers to tie up their staff and prevent them from talking to potential victims. Someone like Kitboga could do this at scale. Where there's a phone number, there's a way.

fckgw 1y ago

Exactly. And when you try and help these people and explain that you didn't actually call Ticketmaster support they will tell you that they found the phone number on the official Ticketmaster website and Google said it was a verified link. Here's a real example from the same thing happening on FB (don't call that number) https://i.redd.it/w9htjqflgjle1.jpeg https://i.redd.it/w9htjqflgjle1.jpeg

ninkendo 1y ago
Completely unrelated tangent: Jesus Christ Reddit is such a cesspit. Tried tapping that link on mobile, got a screen to view the corresponding post. Tapped it, and I got taken to the App Store. No thanks, force quit the App Store and go back. Now I get a full screen notice on the original Reddit tab saying “didn’t go where you expected? Next time try the long press!” With instructions to not use private browsing and to long press any link and open in safari. (Wha? You, Reddit, are what are trying to force me to use your app!) So I long press like they say, open in new tab, and what do I see? A large blank page that just says “REDDIT” in all caps, with the button “Get the app” on the bottom. The link was just to “reddit.app.link” the whole time. Can’t a company who has a website, just … let me use the website? At every possible turn, Reddit HATES anyone using Reddit from a browser. They will ruin every single aspect of the website they possibly can to try to push you to the app. The entirety of reddit.com seems to be just a broken honeypot to get you to use the app instead. I just can’t fathom how a company can be that broken. Just delete the Reddit website, it would make more sense.
- KronisLV 1y ago
  > The entirety of redit.com seems to be just a broken honeypot to get you to use the app instead. I just can’t fathom how a company can be that broken. It's their intention to have the website be a funnel so that they can get more mobile users. I sometimes use https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com, though it doesn't look that great on mobile, maybe there are some other alternatives.
  - pjc50 1y ago

amelius 1y ago

On top of that, you receive private information about people from Google, because if someone calls your number, then you know that they were on ticketmaster. Replace ticketmaster by e.g. a swingers club, and now Google's ad businessmodel is in real trouble because it leaks sensitive information.

nothrabannosir 1y ago

> ticketmaster is just a sin eater for greedy popstars Apparently Live Nation owns many performance venues and leverages their power in that market to gain an advantage in the ticket sales market. “Sell through us or you won’t be allowed to play at any famous venue in this city” kind of deal. Don’t have any sources beyond “heard it on a podcast” though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯