#tax-debt-problems

Well done Google for taking action against the debt advice impersonators

by Richard Lane, Director of External AffairsYou may recall that earlier this year we kicked up a big public fuss about the rise in so called ‘lead generator’ firms advertising on search engines in ways that we felt were deeply manipulative and deceptive to people in debt. You may have heard us talking about this on BBC Radio 4 You & Yours and featured in coverage in The Telegraph and The Sun.We’re delighted that the search engine giant Google is now taking action to reduce the risk of this happening in future.Imitation is not the most sincere form of flatteryMore than a million people a year search online for reputable debt advice — like that given by StepChange to hundreds of thousands of clients each year. All too often however, some of them were being siphoned off through pernicious advertising into sharing their personal data with commercial data harvesting sites masquerading as legitimate debt advice providers.Not only were some of these providers using misleading advertising copy and names very similar to real debt advice charities, but they were bidding against specific search terms associated with reputable debt advice charities to appear at the top of Google’s search engine results page shown to people searching for debt advice from charities like us — like the example below.Examples we’ve seen of impostor firms listed on Google search resultsWe’ve since heard from scores of people who genuinely thought they were dealing with StepChange, only to realise later that they had effectively been tricked into sharing their data, often subsequently being contacted by organisations using aggressive marketing tactics to sell fee-charging debt solutions or other financial products.This matters not only to us as a charity but, more importantly, to the people looking for debt advice. It’s shocking that people who thought they had found their way to impartial, free and reputable advice have found themselves taken advantage of, sharing their personal data with firms they did not understand, and sometimes incurring costs they did not need to as a result.Google’s actionsGoogle has now decided that enough is enough — globally. We’re delighted that it’s taking steps to limit the types of organisations from whom it’ll accept advertising for debt advice and debt management services. In the UK, if an organisation does not have relevant FCA authorisation or does not have regulated Insolvency Practitioner status, it’ll no longer be allowed to advertise debt services.This is a step in the right direction. While there are still things that we think regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority, the Insolvency Service and the Advertising Standards Authority need to do to tighten up the rules that apply to what firms can do and say in public, Google’s step is a tangible example of what can be done to improve the situation in the meantime.Regulatory whack-a-mole is not a fun gameWe’ll be watching closely for any signs of displacement activity, though. Will the impersonators simply find another way to reach people — through other search engines, or social media platforms? Keeping on top of manipulative activity in the financial services arena is all too often like regulatory whack-a-mole — you deal with one problem, only to find it popping up somewhere else.We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled to try to ensure that our clients, and would-be clients, are protected from these opportunists. Having successfully complained about and tackled 83 instances of misleading search engine advertising so far this year, we’re hoping this particular area of our activity may now reduce.But there’s no room for complacency — and our “Make sure it’s us” information is still something we’d urge anyone looking for debt advice to be alerted to.Well done Google for taking action against the debt advice impersonators was originally published in StepChange Debt Charity on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.