Microsoft Bing Ads Warn About Online Scams

Microsoft on Tuesday began serving up scam warnings with Bing search results for topics such as fixing credit scores or rescue from home foreclosure that are prime material for online cons.

Microsoft worked with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Postal Inspection Service, and Western Union to provide public service announcements (PSAs) in the form of advertising posted on relevant Bing results pages.

The ads should appear for relevant keywords only; I’ve tried about a dozen different combinations, and haven’t seen them, but it could be because I’m not located in the USA. You should see them if you’re looking for foreclosure rescue, lottery, and fixing credit problems. If you click on one, you’ll land on trade commission or Microsoft Web pages containing advice about avoiding online scams.

The initiative might move to other search engines, too. “We’ll encourage other search engines to follow Microsoft’s lead and use PSAs to help their users avoid scams,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC bureau of consumer protection. Be that as it may, this is another move by Microsoft that shows they’re serious about grabbing more of that search market share, something they’ve been surprisingly good at so far.