Scams lurk in ads on Google searches for US student loan relief

TTP found that Alphabet Inc’s Google showed ads for services that charge ‘questionable fees’, imitate government agencies and request personal data from users for ‘unclear purposes’. — AFP Relaxnews

Searching Google for information about US student loan forgiveness surfaces advertisements that either appear to violate content policies or lead people to scams, according to a watchdog group, increasing public confusion as the Joe Biden administration mulls actions on student debt.

The Tech Transparency Project, a research arm of the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability, reviewed top searches related to student loans, such as “student loan forgiveness” and “cancel student debt”, to track the ads Google serves up. Of the 242 ads the group reviewed, TTP determined that 29 breached Google’s policies or displayed “scam characteristics”, representing almost 12% of the total.