I recently posted a tweet on Twitter complaining about obnoxious and misleading Facebook ads. You know the one's I am referring to... "Would You Like to Make $5,000 a Month Posting a Link on Google?" or one's from the "Emillionaire Institute" "Get Rich Working from Home for Google". These companies have nothing to do with Google and Facebook should not be running misleading ads. According to the Google blog site, they aware of these ads and are apparently doing nothing about it. I can't imagine that brand infringing and degrading images like this one would not get the attention of a $20B adverting powerhouse.
A recent article from the Sydney Morning Herald stated, "Facebook repeatedly accepted ads for a get-rich-quick scam it apparently knew was defrauding users in a desperate attempt to earn revenue. Google does not pay people to sit and home and "post links". The article continued, "A spokesman for Google said the search giant's legal team was reviewing the scam sites and would "take appropriate action as necessary". There are companies that pay people to sit at home and click on ads, hurting advertisers. But these guys are just plain ripping people off.
The article mentions that, "People on the RipOffReport.com website said they were charged hundreds of dollars and attempts to obtain a refund were fruitless."
A follow up article asked, "Why can't Facebook shut down the scammers?" I am going to go out on a limb and guess that Facebook is making money from the ads... c'mon Facebook! I am a fan and have encouraged lots of folks to join. Respect your members and get your act together on this before the negative PR buzz drip to a flood.
Tom