Google says it has removed 123m ‘bad’ financial ads globally in the past year and is stepping up its fight against online scammers in the UK by pledging to work more closely with the FCA.

The search engine made the pledge in a response to stinging criticism from MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee.

The global tech firm says it has never done more to tackle online financial scam ads and has recently introduced a raft of new measures to crack down on financial scam cheats.

MPs on the Works and Pensions Committee published a report at the weekend on their inquiry into the result of five years of the Pension Freedoms, highlighting the failure of global tech firms such as Google and social media providers to stop a surge in pension and financial scam ads. 

MPs said Google and other online providers should be held to account for hosting “immoral” pension scam adverts.

The committee wants online financial scams to be included in the Online Harms Bill going through Parliament. The Pension Scams Industry Group estimates that £10 billion has been lost by 40,000 people to pension scams in the UK alone since 2015. 

However, Google insists it is working harder to weed out financial scams and is doing more each year to clamp down on scam financial ads.

The search engine told Financial Planning Today it had removed 3.1bn “bad ads” from its platforms in the last year, of which 123m related to financial services.

A spokesperson for Google told Financial Planning Today: “Protecting consumers and credible businesses operating in the financial sector is a priority for us. We take dishonest business practices and misleading ads very seriously and consider them to be a violation of our policies. 

“Last year, we updated our financial services policies and removed 3.1 billion bad ads from our platforms, of which 123 million were ads related to financial services. When ads do not comply with our policies; we take action to remove them."

Over the past year has been working more closely with the FCA and is now regularly sharing information and expertise with the regulator. In early 2020, Google asked the FCA to notify it when it added to its scam firm warning list. Google said it took on action on all additions. Every year the FCA publishes warning about hundreds of clone and scam financial firms.

Google also recently introduced two new policy updates aimed at stopping fraud. 

One was its Business Operations Verification for UK Financial Services Advertisers. This introduced a requirement for advertisers engaged in the promotion of financial services in the UK to complete the Business operations verification programme, when requested by Google. This requires them to provide further information about their business and 3rd party relationships. 

Google said it may pause advertiser accounts immediately and require them to complete business operations verification if it finds that their business model is unclear and Google suspects that their advertising or business practices may cause physical or monetary harm to users.

The other Google policy update was on “unreliable claims.” Google now restricts the rates of return a firm can advertise and bans the use of terms that make unrealistic claims. This update prohibits making unrealistic promises of large financial return with minimal risk, effort or investment, Google has said. 

Google is also now beginning to verify the identity of all advertisers on its platforms to determine “bad actors.” Advertisers will be asked to submit personal legal identification, business incorporation documents or other information that proves who they are and the country they operate in.

Advertisements for financial services and products must also disclose all fees and third party associations and provide legitimate contact information for the business. It also has a misrepresentation policy that should stop ads or destinations that deceive users by excluding relevant product information or provide misleading information about products, services or businesses.

Google has warned, however, that while it is stepping up its battle against scammers it regularly faces recurring bad ads and “adversarial actors” that adapt their strategies to try to evade Google’s checks and protection systems.