Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Investment offers which don’t ad up
Most savers will lose all their money on website promoted by Google Ads
GOOGLE insists it’s committed to stopping scammers pushing their bent websites to the top of online search results.
It isn’t doing a very good job, judging by the flood of blatant scams promoted by Google Ads.
Among the latest is one targeting savers using the search term “best investments”.
At the top of the results was a Google Ad promising a “new investing opportunity for Brits”, saying you could make 9,233 a week – though it didn’t specify the currency.
I’ve got a good reason for hating this scam ad more than most because clicking on it took you to a fake Mirror online page.
The article claimed to feature Martin Lewis, of Money Saving Expert, gushing about a cryptocurrency trading platform called Bitcoin Era.
Among the made-up quotes attributed to him was: “Anyone who does not jump on this opportunity is missing out.”
The same “article” claimed that tech titans Bill Gates and Elon Musk were consultants to Bitcoin Era, altering the background of a picture of them to make it appear that they were discussing Bitcoin – when in reality they were at a conference on sustainable development.
It shouldn’t have been difficult for Google to spot that this was a sham and refuse to pocket money by running adverts for it – all you had to do was look at the url to see that the article was not on the genuine mirror.co.uk site.
Clicking on the Bitcoin Era links in the piece took you to btc-system. com and bitsystemsoft.com.
“Ride the wave of Bitcoin and earn a guaranteed $13,000 in exactly 24 hours,” their home pages spouted.
I registered with a pseudonym and was phoned by a pushy sales rep called Siobhan from another website, Ubrokers.com, who wanted me to deposit £250 to open an account. “It will take five minutes of your time – it’s three simple steps,” Siobhan urged.
Ubrokers is a platform for “contracts for differences” or CFDS, which are gambles on whether the prices of particular commodities will go up or down over a set period.
“If you believe Bitcoin, for example, will go up and it does go up, congratulations, you have a potential profit,” said Siobhan.
“The beauty of trading with CFDS is if you believe the price of Bitcoin will go down and it does go down, once again congratulations, you have a potential profit. Once you set up your account, you get a call from a senior account manager to help you understand everything.”
When I said I was doubtful, she tried some cod psychology, asking: “Are you a person who likes to make things happen or are you a person who just sits back and waits for things to happen?”
I explained that I was worried about losing my money and she reverted to the spiel about how a senior account manager would help “minimise your risk”.
The small print on Ubrokers.com is more honest, stating: “CFDS are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDS.” That’s worth emphasising – three-quarters or more of investors will lose money through this site that’s promoted by Google Ads.
“All ads and partners are required to abide by our policies, and our new Clickbait Ads policy aims to prevent bad actors more effectively in the future,” insisted a Google spokesman.
Ubrokers.com is a trading name of Capital Securities SA, registered in Greece. It has not replied to me.