Google Sued for Ad Fraud

again

Google got *slapped back* yesterday with an advertising fraud lawsuit, yet again.

A Massachusetts based private investigator, David Almeida, is seeking class action status. The lawsuit claims Google defrauds advertisers by omitting a critical default setting during campaign set up. This default is set to display advertising on both Google’s search results pages and, all partner pages, through both shared search results and Google’s Adsense programs. Advertisers don’t see this option while creating a campaign. Only after creating a campaign is the setting in dispute both available and visible. This requires the user to go back and change in Adwords, this disputed campaign setting by un-checking the box labeled “Content Network” which is, you guessed it, checked by default.

No doubt Google will take action to remedy this legal *broad match* quickly as it is in Google’s best interest not to allow this joust to run *un-checked* as the lawsuit could become quite an expensive proposition otherwise!

On a more serious note, If you’re not creating separate search and content campaigns you really should be, it’s a best practice and, will help you spot these little gotchyas on the fly as they say!

Tags: Adsense, advertisers, Adwords, Class Action Lawsuit, Content Network, Conversion, david almeida, Featured, fraud lawsuit, Google, Google, private investigator, Research, slap face