While Google's subsidiary, YouTube, is facing a lawsuit for promoting cryptocurrency scams, Google's ad platform continues to display fraudulent crypto ads through its advertising network.

According to a study by Bitcoin (BTC) crypto exchange, CoinCorner, Google Ads was running an ad for CoinCorner's phishing clone website, CoinCornerr.com. The consequence was reported by CoinCorner'due south marketing manager, Molly Spiers, on Apr 30.

Google Ads promotes a crypto scam only doesn't want to promote a real firm

Spiers told Cointelegraph that CoinCorner's team first noticed the fraudulent advertizing on Thursday morn after searching for "CoinCorner" on Google.com and Google.co.uk. According to the executive, the phishing advert was promoted by Google. CoinCorner has struggled to identify ads on Google Ads for years.

Source: Twitter

The Isle of Man-based crypto exchange has been restricted from advertising on Google Ads since Google put a blanket ban on crypto ads back in 2022, Spiers said. Although Google subsequently appear a fractional contrary of the ban, CoinCorner is still among the crypto firms that are not allowed to use Google Ads. Prior to 2022, CoinCorner was a loyal user of Google Ads.

Spiers said:

"We accept previously had total admission to the GoogleAds platform - nosotros were loyal customers for iv years, from when we launched CoinCorner in June 2022 to when Google updated their Fiscal Services policy in June 2022 [...] We accept contacted Google a number of times to ask for updates on the UK, merely to date, GoogleAds is nonetheless not available to u.s.."

The fraudulent CoinCornerr.com website is currently unavailable. Its Google Ad has purportedly been taken down at the time of publication. Co-ordinate to domain registration data, the fraudulent domain was created on Apr 29.

Does Google actually allow crypto ads?

According to Google'due south advertising policies, the platform does allow some crypto ads. Specifically, Google Ads service accepts ads for crypto hardware products and crypto exchanges.

However, crypto exchanges are field of study to specific requirements and purportedly only allowed to be promoted in the United States and Japan to engagement. Cointelegraph tried to reach out to Google for comment and will update if nosotros hear back.

Google's crypto commutation ad policies. Source: Google

Co-ordinate to Spiers, the fraudulent website successfully bypassed Google Ads' restrictions past not mentioning Bitcoin or cryptocurrency in their advert at all. The executive elaborated that any adverts that contain crypto-related keywords, like Bitcoin or crypto, are automatically disapproved. "They've used the same text equally us but removed any mention of Bitcoin, which, at a quick glance, could hands be mistaken for our site," Spiers explained.

Crypto scam problems intensify on Google and YouTube

CoinCorner's instance is not the offset time users have caught Google advertising a crypto scam. In March 2022, Google Ads was promoting a false Ledger Wallet extension designed to steal crypto from users. To Google's credit, we reported in mid-April that the company removed 49 Google Chrome web browser extensions afterwards receiving reports of phishing activity.

Meanwhile, Google's video giant subsidiary, YouTube, has also been burdened with crypto scams. On Apr 21, Ripple Labs and its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, filed a lawsuit against YouTube later on the platform promoted a faux airdrop from an account impersonating Garlinghouse. Less than a week subsequently, Ripple CTO, David Schwartz, had his YouTube channel suspended on April 29.