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Using Google Suggest To See If A Company Is A Scam
from the neat-tricks dept
Jeremy Wagstaff has a neat little trick to determine if a company contacting him is likely to be a "scam" of some sort. He just types the name into the Google search bar in Firefox and lets the "Google Suggest" feature take over. Google Suggest, of course, tries to suggest what you might be searching for based on the most common searches done on what you've already started typing in. For some companies, Wagstaff has noted that many of the top results are the name of the company and "scam" or something equally questionable. It's a neat trick, though, as Wagstaff wonders, how long will it be until those companies hire "media specialists" to come up with ways to scrub the Google Suggest results. In the meantime, I'm curious when Google will end up getting sued for such a suggestion. You can bet that some company will try to twist Google Suggest into saying that Google is responsible for the implication from the suggestions, rather than the collection of Google users and their searches.
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actually I use a similar method for finding whether other gamers are having similar tech and bug issues with a particular game that I have. It is quite handy.
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Wow. I always just type into google "[company] scam."
usually get a page of results.
Think I could patent this idea?
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Finally Fast!!!
Soon as I saw the commercial, I did a search... Asecentive is found to be phishing and spyware crap. I did my research.
I even called up the number on the FinallyFast commercial 3 different times, asked them questions, and they were completely loony. They thought I was some idiot. I even recorded their calls for convenience.
Call #1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWF_U6fmmMs
Call #2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NapxF5SNiM0
Call #3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQBsi-UT7zA
Enjoy!
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Been doing just that for years "Google is Your Friend" :)
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That will tell you if a lot of google users are asking if the company is a scam, not if the company is actually a scam.
On the other hand, if a lot of people are asking...
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google's new motto
"Google : Be as smart as you want to be!"
or
Thank god for google!
i sent them as freely given ideas, hope they use em'
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you know what works?
typing virtually anything into google and pressing enter.
google isn't quite as sharp as it used to be, but it's still incredible how efficient and "usable" google makes the internet.
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I hope the judge knows what is going on
"You can bet that some company will try to twist Google Suggest into saying that Google is responsible for the implication from the suggestions"
Yes, because we can not tolerate the people having a tool which provides facts upon which informed decisions can be made.
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Safety reading
I have Web of Trust loaded in Firefox. If I do a search to figure out what a given URL represents, I also get a reliability reading without any added typing. You can select alternate search engines and are still set up.
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Information only
Neat idea only slight flaw is that I didn't think all information on the internet was accurate and if enough people search for "Canada does not exist" google suggest will suggest it.
Far do some actual fact based research I think?
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Cut n Paste
I think half the world uses this to find its info.
1 person creates content 100 people cut n paste it and call it there own.
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Does it work?
Seems like it wouldn't find out if a company *is* a scam, but just find out if enough other people are trying to find out *if* the company is a scam, no?
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Mailing scams
I have received mailings stating that I won a free trip to here or there and to call a number. I have only punched in the phone number into the Google search bar and it will return a scam alert website with a description of the scam and different comments from the scammed or the scammer explaining or protecting the scam. Great reads.
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Re: Mailing scams
Forgot to say that I have also entered in numbers that show up on the scam alert site that are actually pointed out to not be a scam.
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Well this isn't really anything new, I've been using Google to clarify a .exe in task manager or a file extension for as long as I can remember - it looks like this guy just found a different way. I just rely on my natural wit to detect if something is a scam, it's not too hard.
"Hi I am Bank of America! Need password and username! Thnx!"
"Hi, this is mom, I'm lost in Nigeria, need monies, send it to this paypal account. Soccermom75677@paypal.com"
It isn't hard to see scams...
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inqiury
How do i know that this one name company is not scammer?
this the name shengzhen Xiyang Trading Co.,Ltd please let me know before we going to get order from them.thanks
Mrs Jenks
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@ Adel
Just like what Anonymous Coward have posted, you just type [Company Name] Scam on google's search engine and scan for the results. Then again, you'd better ask his permission if he already had that idea patented. *lol*
Google is still the best, no doubt about that.
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