A group of do-gooding SEOs are collaborating to make the online world a better place. They are attempting to influence Google’s search rankings for the keyword ‘Google Cash’, to alert the public of the scam behind this enticing title that has already fooled so many.
If you don’t know what Google Cash is, here’s a quick rundown: Google Cash, Google Money Tree, and Google Treasure Chest, are all online scams that lure customers into divulging their bank account information. They did this by advertising a low-cost kit that they claimed would allow people to earn up to $100,000 in six months. However, the scams neglected to inform the customers that purchasing these kits would lead to $72.21 being withdrawn from their bank account each month.
On July 1, 2009, the US Federal Trade Commission launched a civil action against some of these scammers.
One would think that Google would try to punish these scams by devaluing or even purging their rankings in its search results, but it doesn’t seem that this has happened. In fact, Google is still making money from searches for this keyword, from PPC bidders. On top of this, Google ads are still appearing on the scamming sites in question. This is strange, because to get into the adsense program, a publisher has to have their site reviewed by Google. What this means is that Google is making a profit from these scams that are abusing its good name.
Enter the SEO white knights. They’ve decided to target the keyword “Google Cash” by writing articles containing the keyword with information warning potential scam victims about the Google Cash scammers’ evil ways.
The white knights have this to say: “We hope that we can place advisory content to take over the top 10 results in Google for searches related to common scams and online fraud with a particular focus on areas which are using adwords & adsense to snare victims.”
They are doing well so far. Already, the search results contain many articles indicating that Google Cash is a scam. Indeed (though this is Google’s do-gooding), the number one result in a search for Google Cash is a thread on Google’s Webmaster forum entitled “Is Google Cash a legitimate service.”
Search Engine Land points out that it will be interesting to see what comes of the white knights’ advisory attempt, since Google normally doesn’t like coordinated action which influences search results. However, as the author wonders, does the end outweigh the means in this case?
It’s difficult to say how Google really feels about these scams. The profit they are making from adsense on the scamming sites in question must be fairly minimal. And they are continuing to publish very visible articles advising their searchers to steer clear of such scams. If they let the white knights do their job, it would definitely show that they are not interested in supporting these scammers.
Kaila Krayewski is a freelance journalist with a passion for all things internet. Having worked for nearly two years as the public relations manager for an internation search engine optimization company, and publishing hundreds of articles (how-to, informational, and otherwise) on SEO, she knows a thing or two about the field. Furthermore, having just started up her own website blondetraveler.com, she is doing her best to keep one step ahead of the search engines in order to keep the traffic flowing.
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