As the day-to-day count of cyber frauds is growing at an alarming rate in Britain, the country’s data watchdog has decided to take legal action against Google if it doesn’t find out a way to tackle online fraud.
The agenda of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is to pull down investment-related scams from various social media platforms and Google search engines.
By luring victims by offering high-end returns for investing in shares and bonds, scamsters are stealing and making money in millions, from innocent online customers.
Later all such funds end up in the pockets of bad guys who indulge in various crimes such as human trafficking, malware spread, drug smuggling, and extortion.
“If Google doesn’t mend its ways in vetting fraudulent advertisers then it is going to face serious business consequences”, said Mark Steward, the Director of FCA who appeared before the Commons Treasury Committee in the second week of June this year.
What’s interesting about the news is that FCA is spending over £600,000 on posting ads on Google to educate online consumers against cybercrime. But the fact is that the crime is increasing more and that’s because the web search doesn’t keep a tab on fraudulent scamsters who are seen posting tricky ads on its platform.
UK government is considering introducing a legal duty on Google to keep a check on the ads that are popping up on its platform and the same is intended to be put forward on the Online Safety bill that is to be introduced at some time at the end of this year.
