Comment by sgt

3 days ago

I've heard of that but never experienced it on my Google. Weird. I just retried that now and it's giving the correct link. Maybe that's why it's not being fixed.

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sgt

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cbeach  3 days ago

I reported the ad to Google immediately, and when I checked back an hour later the search results were clear. But I suspect it's only a matter of time before another one slips through the net.

I think what happens is a legitimate business with a history of legit Google advertising gets compromised by malware, and then their Google adverts are flipped.

  • cbeach  2 days ago

    Just heard back from Google regarding my report of the ad that served malware to me:

    > Dear Chris,

    > We’re writing to let you know that we reviewed your report (ID 579240969280369002).

    > Here's what we found

    > We decided not to take this ad down. We found that the ad doesn’t go against Google’s policies, which prohibit certain content and practices that we believe to be harmful to users and the overall online ecosystem.

    I think the safest thing I can do right now is avoid using Google for searches and instead use Claude, which at least has functioning safeguards, and is less easily poisoned than Google Search.