I’ve repeatedly criticised Google for taking money to run adverts placed by scammers who are targeting savers, but they’re not the only culprits.
Similar scams are pushed to the top of search results on Bing, the Microsoft search engine.
There’s ISA Finder UK which promises on its website isafinderonline.com: “Find the best ISAs online today in 20 seconds”, adding that savers will be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Far from protecting savers, this site was added to the Financial Conduct Authority’s scam alert list on March 3 and yet was still being advertised on Bing last week.
Select My Bond makes the similar promise of quick results on selectmybond-uk.com: “Compare the best fixed bonds in 20 seconds.”
It was put on the FCA’s alert list on March 10 and was also being promoted via Bing last week.
Both sites claim to be run by Northern Trust Global Investments Limited, a global wealth manager.
This is a lie designed to give the sites an air of legitimacy – they have no connection with Northern Trust Global.
I asked Microsoft why Bing was taking money to promote scams that had been on the official warning list for weeks.
The reply was far from a straightanswer.
“As our policies clearly state, advertisers who promote financial products and services must ensure they comply with all applicable local laws and regulatory requirements,” said a spokesman. “We encourage people to report possible deceptive or fraudulent ads they may be seeing so we can review and take action as appropriate.
“We also encourage anyone looking to make an investment to verify the company against the latest FCA register.”
That last point is breathtaking hypocrisy – Bing says we should check advertisers against the FCA register while apparently not bothering to do so itself.
These were not the only worrying adverts I found on Bing. A search for "best fixed rate bonds" brought up bonds-4u.com as one of the first hits. Its boast “Compare bonds online today in 20seconds” rings a bell.
And there’s isa-supermarket.com, put near the top of Bing results when searching for "top ISA rates" and also tempting: “Compare the best ISAs online today in 20 seconds.”
Besides the same wording, these latest two websites use the same artwork and layout as the two sites that are already on the FCA alert list, so you might have hoped that this would have rung some alarm bells at Bing, but it seems not.
Pretty much the only difference with these two newer sites is that rather than lying about being part of Northern Trust Global Investments, isa-supermarket and bonds-4u say they are owned by SEI Investments (Europe) Limited.
This is another giant wealth manager and I wasn’t surprised by the answer I received when I asked SEI Investments if these were indeed its websites.
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” a spokesperson said.
“Neither site you mention is operated by, or affiliated in any way with, SEI Investments (Europe) Limited.
“We consider both sites to be fraudulent and are investigating what actions we can take to protect consumers and our brand, including taking steps to obtain a suspension of those domains.”
Shame that Bing did not make the same checks before carrying adverts for these scams sites. The warning signs weren’t hard to spot.
