Students seeking loan relief must beware of the Scammers on Google

Google is the most capable engine that handles more than 70 percent of the online search requests all around the globe. Users get the best experience of their life by getting benefits from the different useful apps which give great ease to the users. Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a non-profit watchdog organization revealed that more than 10^th of the Google ads which promote student loan relief programs are bogus services. So, students seeking loan relief must beware of the scammers on Google.

Percentage of students’ loan relief Scammers on Google

TTP investigated 242 ads and 12 percent of the ads were handled by scammers. These scammers have scam characteristics in their content and hence are not following Google’s policies. Google has very strict rules for money-focused advertisements. The company says:

“We prohibit ads that falsely imply an affiliation with a government agency, and have strict rules that govern financial services ads on our platforms, including policies against ads that fail to disclose associated fees or promote credit repair services.”

When TTP entered the terms like “student debt forgiveness”, “student debt”, “cancel student debt” and “Biden loan forgiveness”, the searches recommended the ads from which many were fake and scammers. The company told that one site which advertised the student loan program was designed to look just like the government agency which is against the rules and policies of Google. When the Federal Trade Commission was asked about the rules, its spokesperson told:

“It is illegal for companies to charge you before they help you.”

Google doesn’t allow ads that push scams but still, we see such scam ads on the Google search engine which raises questions about Google’s transparency and approval of the ads. Katie Paul, the Non-profit’s Director said,

“Google’s lack of transparency about how it reviews and approves ads raises questions about how stringent the tech giant’s vetting process really is.”

Let’s see how Google will respond to the concerns raised by the non-profit organization TTP and what will be its future strategies to stop these scammers to harm innocent people using the Google search engine platform.

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