And it's bad for google.
Users will learn, don't ever click on an adwords link - in the same way we try and teach them not to click on a 'you are the 1000 visitor' type pop-ups
Apart from the url mismatch, is this illegal? I don't think so, they are selling support for an opensource project. If this support is bad, not needed, ..., is more an ethical problem, but otherwise there is nothing wrong about it.
It may not be illegal, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't a flagrant violation of Google's terms of service and likely to get the advertiser's AdWords account terminated with extreme prejudice.
"Illegal" and "nothing wrong" aren't an exhaustive set.
As far as I can tell, it's something of a grey area. The German c't magazine reported on this type of scam recently. Apparently it's common in Germany, used against users searching for FOSS (OpenOffice, Firefox, etc.) and various freeware.
While charging for support isn't illegal in itself, a few cases have made their way through the courts, with the burned users not having to pay up as it's often not clear what the service you are paying for is even supposed to be. What is of course illegal (at least in Europe, I'd hope elsewhere too) is hiding the fact that they're charging for anything in the first place. The operators have cottoned on to this and will hide any mention of cost or a contract when you visit the page via a search engine or ad (based on the Referer [sic] header), but if you go back to the page directly after signing up or receiving a bill, it's all there. Obviously, they're trying to make you think you missed it first time around.
I suspect there is in theory also legal ground to fight this based on trademark, etc. grounds, but there's probably almost zero chance of real success, as it's way too easy to open a throwaway business that closes down the first sign of trouble.
The way to get at these guys is presumably proving them guilty of a criminal offence (fraud), in which case the business front won't help.
If you end up a victim of this sort of scam, basically categorically state (in writing) that you weren't aware you were agreeing to a contract, and that the contract is therefore void. Also, don't give them more info on you than they already have. If they send the bill by email and they don't have your physical address, don't send the refusal to pay in the mail with a return address, etc. They'll rarely try to hunt you down if you flat out refuse, there are unfortunately enough victims that will cough up as soon as they get a scary sounding letter with a legal-looking letterhead.
Legality questions aside, it is certainly really bad for any user running into this.
The download that the user actually gets after giving away their credit card info is an ancient version of the Mozilla Suite, not even Firefox. The support is pretty much non-existent as well. People can't actually get the help they paid for.
I caught this a few weeks ago when I tried to install ffx on my girlfriend's dad's laptop. Something smelled funny and I backed out without thinking much of it. Never saw the $2.50 charge though. I've reported malicious ads to google in the past and they took them down. Though that was for obscure electronics not a major browser. I bet this is gone in less than 12 hours.
I don't think whoever owns the domain and is running the ad compaign is actually the firefox support guys. If you take a look at the source it appears they're loading sites in a frameset. So my guess is it's a referrer shop and the site they're loading will change regularly.
And I don't know why I'm saying they or shop since it's no doubt one guy collecting many small referral paychecks for a bunch of these.
This happened before, when Google Adsense paid $1 for anyone who installed Firefox with Google Toolbar via an affiliate link. A clever chap ran ads linking to a download page with his affiliate link.
[+] [-] michael_dorfman|16 years ago|reply
Why does Google allow advertisers to display a different URL than the one they are sending people to?
[+] [-] jraines|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] uigbygb|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antirez|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] camccann|16 years ago|reply
"Illegal" and "nothing wrong" aren't an exhaustive set.
[+] [-] pmjordan|16 years ago|reply
While charging for support isn't illegal in itself, a few cases have made their way through the courts, with the burned users not having to pay up as it's often not clear what the service you are paying for is even supposed to be. What is of course illegal (at least in Europe, I'd hope elsewhere too) is hiding the fact that they're charging for anything in the first place. The operators have cottoned on to this and will hide any mention of cost or a contract when you visit the page via a search engine or ad (based on the Referer [sic] header), but if you go back to the page directly after signing up or receiving a bill, it's all there. Obviously, they're trying to make you think you missed it first time around.
I suspect there is in theory also legal ground to fight this based on trademark, etc. grounds, but there's probably almost zero chance of real success, as it's way too easy to open a throwaway business that closes down the first sign of trouble.
The way to get at these guys is presumably proving them guilty of a criminal offence (fraud), in which case the business front won't help.
If you end up a victim of this sort of scam, basically categorically state (in writing) that you weren't aware you were agreeing to a contract, and that the contract is therefore void. Also, don't give them more info on you than they already have. If they send the bill by email and they don't have your physical address, don't send the refusal to pay in the mail with a return address, etc. They'll rarely try to hunt you down if you flat out refuse, there are unfortunately enough victims that will cough up as soon as they get a scary sounding letter with a legal-looking letterhead.
[+] [-] Tuna-Fish|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DEinspanjer|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] uuilly|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ErrantX|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lupin_sansei|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rapind|16 years ago|reply
And I don't know why I'm saying they or shop since it's no doubt one guy collecting many small referral paychecks for a bunch of these.
[+] [-] unknown|16 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] JDigital|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|16 years ago|reply
[deleted]