YouTube Allowing Store Scams From Advertisers

[LevelUP]

After looking at Youtube over the past several weeks, I noticed many ads going to these fake stores selling fake items with legitimate brand names, such as Macy's. 

(Warning do not buy or enter in any personal or CC info!)
https://www.mingest.com/products/aoac316...572de32c53

What do you think these advertisers are doing, and why does Youtube allow such blatant fraudulent advertising?

[rachel83az]

As long as YT gets its money, they don't seem to care. There are apparently a lot of "adult content" ads on the site, even on videos that are supposed to be targeted towards minors. Creators are pretty miffed about this, especially considering they can be demonetized for mentioning less questionable things in videos that are targeted at an adult audience. Footless Jo briefly got in trouble with YT for simply talking about and showing her prosthetic leg.

[studyingfortests]

Facebook is just as bad. I have my profile buttoned down and all my privacy settings locked down, plus various other privacy protections. As a result, Facebook seems to know nothing about me, so the ads I get are nearly 100% fraud... the same sort of fake stores described above, plus counterfeit postage stamps, fraudulent hair regrowth devices, 4 terabyte hard drives for $20, and the like.

It's pretty shocking how little these companies care about having any sort of integrity about what they advertise. But as long as they're getting their cash, they don't seem to care.

[Maniac Craniac]

There's also been the ubiquitous fake Mr.Beast scam. It involves a cartoon spoof of Mr.Beast promising cash prizes, but only after you pay them a processing fee. A classic scam. Mr.Beast himself has tried to get YouTube to block them from the platform, but YouTube has claimed that they are nearly powerless to stop it because the scammers keep returning with new accounts whenever the old accounts have been removed.

[davewill]

Those showed up in my Google news feed, too. I reported a couple, but it's a particularly bad sign that they can't seem to stop them.

[bjcheung77]

There really isn't too much you can do, everyone should or need to be extra cautious and safe when getting these type of advertisement, be it real or spam... I really don't get many of these as I use ad-blockers whenever on Youtube and other sites, without the ad-blockers, even MSN, Slickdeals, Yahoo, and other sites I frequent comes with advertisements and popups...

[LevelUP]

Well, YouTube is at it again now, promoting a very common Mr. Beast popup scam
https://www.makeuseof.com/mr-beast-givea...p-up-scam/

Screenshot from my Youtube feed appearing as the first ad on the homepage:


So much for the "Don't be evil" model Google used to have.