- Which one? Google warns you of hosting ads for fraudulent and fraudulent websites
- Fake parking payment site tricks users into spending hundreds of dollars in hidden fees
Parking tickets aren’t the only way drivers can lose hundreds of pounds while leaving their cars in town.
Drivers are being urged to be wary of fake parking apps being promoted on Google.
Which one? It warns that these fraudulent ads often appear at the top of search results and can even appear above legitimate sites.
Based on the findings, Which? encourages drivers to avoid looking for apps on search engines and use official app stores instead.
Lisa Webb, which one? A consumer law expert told MailOnline: “It is extremely worrying that scammers are infiltrating Google and other search engines to trick consumers into paying bogus parking fees, and ultimately… “This can potentially cost victims hundreds of pounds.”
Which one? We found that Google search results often show ads for fake parking payment apps at the top of the search results.
Scammers create ads impersonating popular parking payment apps such as PayByPhone, JustPark, and RingGo.
Which one? Posing as PayByPhone in a Google ad, he discovered two separate sites: onlytelephone.com and homeautomationinnovators.com.
Google even placed these fraudulent ads above the legitimate results of the real PayByPhone website.
Both offered “free downloads,” but hidden in fine print at the bottom of their websites would force unwary users to pay a monthly fee.
With the free download, drivers could end up paying £24.99 (about $31.40) a month to an unnamed company for a “bundle health and lifestyle subscription”.
These sites have no connection to the actual PayByPhone and do not have permission to use the site’s logo or assets.
Under new online safety laws, which received royal assent in October, online platforms will be legally required to remove fraudulent and harmful content.
But which one? Google claims to be uncooperative in removing fraudulent ads from search results.
Which one? The company said it alerted Google on November 15 about advertisers impersonating RingGo.
3 weeks later, which one? The site still claimed he was impersonating RingGo and other parking payment apps.
Since at least August, Google has been aware of one fraudulent website called uk.apkpac.
But which one? According to , it was still appearing at the top of search results as of December 5th.
Ms Webb added: “The inclusion of deceptive advertising in the Online Safety Act is a huge win for consumers.” It is Ofcom’s responsibility to develop a code of conduct to hold tech giants to high standards and to take strong enforcement action, including fines, if they break the law. ”
Google has policies against advertisers who deceive users by providing misleading information.
In 2022 alone, 5.2 billion ads had to be removed from Google search results for violating this policy.
Google has since taken action against these ads, and MailOnline has noticed that these ads are no longer appearing in search results.
A Google spokesperson told MailOnline: “Protecting our users is our top priority and we have strict advertising policies that govern the types of ads and advertisers we allow on our platform.” Told.
“We vigorously enforce our policies and remove any ads we find that violate them.”
Which one? found that fake ads were most prevalent on Google, but were also present on other search platforms.
Researchers found that the same ads existed on both Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing.
Similar to Google’s ads, a site called trendy-apps.com also pretended to be PayByPhone and tricked users into signing up for a £24.99 ($31.40) monthly subscription.
In a statement to Which?, Yahoo Search said it has partnered with Microsoft Bing and has been working with them to block this advertiser.
Which one should I use to avoid being scammed? We recommend that drivers only download apps from Apple or Google’s official app stores.
Users should not use search engines to find apps, as this increases the risk of encountering fraud.