The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has initiated a probe into Google Ads following the concern that the platform might have been involved in the promotion of phishing websites which masqueraded as legitimate banking pages, including fake versions of the MBH Bank website.
In its announcement, GVH indicated that there are signs that fraudulent advertising might have been at the top of the Google search results, even though they have gone through Google’s internal review mechanisms. These campaigns, in fact, redirected the users to phishing platforms that disguised themselves as banks in order to get the users’ sensitive banking information like login details and verification codes.
GVH also states that the situation could be as far back as March 15, when Google’s filtering steps were alleged to have been ineffective in stopping ads that not only breached advertising rules but also infringed on Hungarian legal standards. By allowing such advertisements to continue, the authority says, Google may have indirectly facilitated the forgery of MBH Bank’s identity and thus had a hand in the stealing of financial data.
This investigation about Google brings up many other questions such as are Google’s mechanisms for checking ads really that reliable. Although Google operates in the EU under the subsidiary located in Ireland, the company relies on automated systems to monitor all users in Europe. These are assumed to be capable of finding and putting an end to fraudulent content before it comes into view. The GVH is now of the opinion that these systems are not strong enough to unearth phishing attacks in which the hacker’s brand is similar to the official one.
Phishing attacks have evolved over time and are now capable of producing a professional design that features authentic logos to trick victims. If a piece of content like this is distributed via a trusted channel such as Google, the damage to the customer will be very much significant. To a great extent, they believe that Google makes sure that the paid search results are trustworthy, thus they fall into a trap of scammers who may look legit but in fact, are not.
GVH is to find out if Google adhered to competition and consumer-protection laws, if it acted with sufficient care to avert damage, and whether it can be held responsible. Based on the findings of the investigation, Google may be subjected to fines or face more control from the authorities in Hungary.
Meanwhile, the local authority advises that consumers should be very careful when clicking on financial ads even if these ads come up at the top of the search results.