Credit: Alamy
Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy
| Which?
The Online Safety Bill was a step in the right direction, but the Government needs to do more to remove loopholes that put consumers at risk during the cost of living crisis.
Once upon a time, the quickest way to make one million pounds was to go on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and answer 15 general knowledge questions. Now, according to new Which? research, organised crime gangs can make roughly this amount in 24 hours by exploiting glaring gaps in regulation and bombarding websites with fraudulent adverts.
We all see online advertising every day when we’re browsing websites. Some of it is helpful as it can direct us to buying products we want. But there’s a darker side of the online ads we see – and some can lead to consumers suffering financial and psychological harm. Currently only one per cent of the digital advertising supply chain is safe from potential fraudulent activity.
Fraudulent advertising has been found on sites that millions of consumers use daily, including news websites. Scammers will stop at nothing to try to deceive anybody they can – with the cost of living crisis the latest useful hook to lure in victims. An advert explaining a ‘simple trick to lower fuel consumption by 55 per cent’ features a hand trying to place a bottle of Coca Cola in a car’s fuel tank – a clear example of clickbait that attempts to entice the browser to another site, but also a…
