Hacker News Reader

Comment by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF | Hacker News Reader

I wish they'd stop serving scams too. I keep seeing shit like "make 75,000 using Ethereum and ChatGPT"

Scams in online advertising are ubiquitous, I'm amazed adtech companies don't seem to see any consequences for it. I really think there needs to be an onus on online advertisers to prove that the products and services they promote are not scams before anything gets exposed to the public.

I see adblockers as essential security tools at this point, however you dress it up one of the main functions of adtech in the present seems to be connecting literal conmen with their marks as efficiently as possible.

Well, this also needs to be on website publishers who use ads from vendors that don't guarantee that the ads are not scams. Bad ads on any site should have equal treatment to bad content, and should be considered as published by that site (not by the actual ad vendor, i.e., no way to shift responsibility, only to share).

That is, what we need is a rule: N scam ad impressions on my blog (even if they come from a third-party ad provider) = knock-knock from the police at my door as if I were writing scammy blog articles.

How would you police what is a scam vs not practically? In the wrong hands, a malicious actor could forward a narrative

Curious to think that the billion dollar profits, and 6-figure salaries, are earned by scamming people out of their money. Via an intermediary which is the scammer paying for ads on your platform, the money they have through by scamming people in the first place.

Yeah I suppose that's a certain %, the rest of it is ads from e.g. booking.com if you google "hotel california", and other not-really-scam companies. But a pie chart of "Profits made from ads from legitimate company" vs "Scammy ads" would be interesting.

> I see adblockers as essential security tools at this point

The FBI agrees.

> Use an ad blocking extension when performing internet searches. Most internet browsers allow a user to add extensions, including extensions that block advertisements. These ad blockers can be turned on and off within a browser to permit advertisements on certain websites while blocking advertisements on others.

https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2022/PSA221221

And "a propos of nothing, would you like to see this political fringe/crank/"angle"/plain lies content?"

Since YouTube started to take disabled tracking seriously, I guess I see what it tends to suggest to Joe Shmoe, and it's not good - not for Joe and for sure not for social cohesion.

I was sure there was EU laws as well as big tech policies against misinformation / fake news nowadays, maybe I was wrong, maybe there's no oversight, or maybe money trumps principles/laws. I'm disappointed, given that it's no secret that foreign interests (e.g. Russia) are funding / pushing these divisive misinformation campaigns.

Ironically, me saying it's Russia pushing divisive campaigns is in itself a divisive statement to make, therefore, mission successful?

I'm also fairly surprised that such crap is still happening. I think I remember details about one time that it happened, it was in the context of a video where some US dude tries all kinds of flammable liquids as fuel in a combustion engine. It was like YouTube decided "Oh, redneck content! That guy is gonna love himself some right-wing cringe shit."

No, YouTube. That guy doesn't like it and that guy doesn't like YouTube serving divisive garbage to others.

Worst...Do a search for Paris Airport Charles de Gaulle main website.

Watch in horror how in 2024, with all their AI and Algorithmic gurus, Google will serve you as top answers series and series of cloned sites. Sites run from multiple remote countries, that are literally visual replicas of the airport main website and clearly trying to impersonate the main website.

For those interested, this might be related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40133976

My current YouTube is full of self help gurus, ads for funeral insurance, tampons and ground to air anti aircraft missile systems.

You must have a very interesting watch history

I think it's more like my google profile is completely hosed lol.

It might not be a scam, maybe the rest of the sentence is "...by spending 150,000"

> I wish they'd stop serving scams too. I keep seeing shit like "make 75,000 using Ethereum and ChatGPT"

I love those scam ads. They're so entertaining. I actually try to download my favorites sometimes.

I've reported deepfake scam ads of famous people for months and Google does nothing. It's also not uncommon to see adwords links to phishing sites pretending to be banks above the legitimate bank link, and those ads seem to stay up indefinitely. Very disappointing to see they choose money over ethics.

and the Lumiheat!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com