It is important to stay aware of common ways to get scammed on the Internet. Some of the most common scams nowadays are Google advertisements for fake tech support. Scammers use fake advertisements to lure victims who are less tech-savvy in order to convince them that there are non-existent “errors” or “viruses” on their computer, and offer repair services for hundreds of dollars. Often, the scammers pretend to work for large tech companies like Apple or Microsoft.
Google’s main source of income is advertising, but it can be difficult for some people to tell the difference between genuine Google search results and advertisements. Advertisements will always be listed first in Google results, typically 2-4 in total, depending on the search. Google advertisements will always have a small “Ad” tag next to them, but otherwise appear identical to genuine search results. Since many Google users always visit the first Google result before others, advertising tech support services on Google is a sure-fire way to attract less tech-savvy visitors.
If one runs a Google search for “mac tech support” the official Apple support page is currently the fifth-listed result. The first four are paid advertisements for third-party tech support services. Searching Google for “apple tech support” will return the official Apple phone support page and phone number in larger text, but there are still three paid advertisements above it. Similar searches for “apple help,” “microsoft tech support,” or “windows tech support” return similar results. Less tech-savvy individuals not only cannot distinguish genuine Google results from advertisements, but are also more likely to fall victim to sales pitches for fake tech support. As a result, fake tech support scams are very effective.
Google has been criticized for allowing these scammers to appear so high in the Google search results, but there is no clear solution to this problem. Google receives far too many advertising requests for them to manually inspect the source of all of them, and Google does offer a page to report advertisements that impersonate another company or product, located here. Tech support scammers are generally based out of countries other than the ones they advertise in, however, making prosecution very difficult.
To ensure that you are getting genuine support from the manufacturer of your product, avoid clicking on Google results that have “Ad” listed next to them. The official Apple support phone number is 1-800-275-2273, and the official Apple support web page is https://support.apple.com/.
If you are unsure whether a search result is genuine or not, feel free to email us any time!