Google could eradicate scam investment ads but those in power are passing the buck

Atool most of us could not live without is being used against us – and no one with any power is doing much to stop it.

Scammers and speculators are using Google ads to promote their rogue investment schemes to unsuspecting internet users.

There’s only one thing getting in the way of Google fixing the problem: it doesn’t want to. This is the world’s most powerful internet company – it’s utterly implausible that this little hiccup has stumped it. Nor is it a matter of resources: Google prides itself on employing the world’s smartest people – and it pocketed $31bn (£24bn) in profits in the last full year.

The reason it doesn’t want to fix the problem is that the company we all think of as a search engine is actually an advertising company. It made almost $137bn in revenues in 2018 – of which $116bn, or 85pc, came from ad spending.

Google knows there is a problem. A few years ago it introduced a tool that allows people to report individual ads that look fake or inappropriate, which are then reviewed by its team. It said it removed more than three billion ads a year this way.

For Google – which recently became one of a handful of firms in history to break through a market valuation of $1 trillion – this approach is archaic. It’s akin to having staff look up answers to every search term with an old encyclopedia. With this tool, Google has dusted its hands and walked away after throwing a thimble of water at a house on fire.

Why? Because this thimble approach – where it deletes ads on a case-by-case basis – protects its ad revenue. If rogue firms are blocked from promoting their services, Google can’t make money from them. Currently, Google keeps tens of millions of pounds from adverts it later removes.

The company has shown that change is possible when it is willing. Since November, only firms that can prove they are regulated by the City watchdog have been able to advertise on debt-related search terms. This policy was changed after Telegraph Money reported that debt charities such as StepChange were having to

It’s a dangerous game of hot potato – and it’s consumers who will get burned

buy Google ads just so they appeared in search results ahead of copycat firms that charged for the same service.

All those that could step in are passing the buck. Google, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Information Commissioner, the Advertising Standards Authority and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport are playing a dangerous game of hot potato – and it’s consumers who will get burned. It’s time to put down the thimbles and turn on the hoses.

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