On YouTube I reported bot accounts for a couple days, the only reaction I got was that at some point it showed a popup that told me too many false reports would lead to a ban. Not sure what Google gets out of it, but there is no way they could be that bad at fighting bots unless they're not even trying. Even trivial tricks like copy-pasted texts keep working.

They're not trying. I've seen an advertiser remain active for months with literally tens of thousands of ads where clicking them directly downloads a malicious exe file that most antivirus scanners flag.

They're definitely not trying - in any form. I run a marketplace for dogs (i.e. craigslist for puppies & dogs) and scammers are always trying to post fakes ads. They always use Gmail accounts. Every time I ban a gmail address, they scammers will just get a new one. Same scammer/person has created thousands of gmail accounts and Google doesn't care. I have reported this to Google. For the amount of info Google has on people, trivial for them to prevent some of this.

Until a scammer uses some of your information then you get banned from Google with no way to appeal.

Meanwhile, because I've worked for several startups who have used Google Workspaces, if I (try to) open a new Google account, phone verification fails because my phone number "has been used too many times".

Some places suggest "try logging into Google with your phone number, and deleting the account that's associated, if you don't need", that just ... doesn't work.

Shadowbans work much better for this purpose

Worse, they're actively working to allow malicious activity. Meta made 10% of it's revenue, around $16B from known scams: https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortu...

Tech support scams still?! I don't even understand how this is possible. If Google wanted to they could come up with the tech to bypass the spam/scammers own ghosting system. They must have some kind of invisible Google bot that checks for downloads/scams, right?

Phone providers should also be detecting this with AI. There is no way this should be occurring anymore.

They make money on those ads, you’re asking a mega corporation to make less money. Good luck.

We had that issue of someone advertising fake clones of our sites specifically to push fake malware ridden payloads. We only got it handled by bugging internal contacts at Google. It sucked and worse we had to bug them for weeks because the attacker was churning through multiple domains and probably over 100 breached Ad accounts by the time they stopped

Why would they? Their ad dollars spend the same, and they have no incentive to police it when they are protected by section 230.

Edit: I’m not implying this is morally right or good for anyone but Google shareholders. This is just 21st Century American capitalism

Bot comments and uploads count in KPIs. Blocking/Removing bots = KPIs look worse.

Google makes loads of money through scam ads and fake/AI slop videos. Anyone trying to get in the way of that is putting Google's profits at risk, hence why they shut down legitimate accounts but scammers just run free.

> popup that told me too many false reports would lead to a ban

That would imply that someone actually sees them... vs shoving them under the rug, or giving them to a bot to delete.

Why would anyone with a sound mind envy billionaires?

That you give random people on the internet the power to decide who you vote for is kind of sad. Calling them low intelligence for it even more so.

I just responded exactly how the OP responded to prove a point.

He doesn't trust it for anything else either as far as I can tell. In an interview he's boasted about how he uses a paper notebook for everything all day.

They probably want to avoid situations where a customer turns off backups, then loses data and makes it the problem of support.

But it would be nice to have a "don't ask again" option regardless, even if it's hidden in settings.

The Amazon version of this story I heard was support advising to create a new account, and then the person got permabanned for creating multiple accounts which is against TOS.

> I'm still impressed when switching between programs isn't stuttery

It is stuttery when you use the magic touchpad via Bluetooth, same applies to the cursor. It's very noticeable with slow movements.

Some companies like Activision clearly state in their terms that chargeback means you will be permanently banned, no exceptions. You'll lose your account and access to all digital "purchases" forever.

They don't need to prove anything to stop doing business with you.

In the US.

And that's only because when Activision makes a digital "sale" they have no legal obligation to follow through and give you what they promised.

I live in the EU and have read this in the terms for my region.

> they have no legal obligation to follow through and give you what they promised

Yes, they do. Contracts are contracts. They just don't promise you ownership of anything but a revocable license. Like every platform offering DRM protected content.

This is why the seven seas are so important for preserving our purchases, companies be damned.

Do you seriously expect other companies not following suit? People need lawnmowers, so this can quickly turn into the same situation we have with the inkjet printer market.

Yes, I expect that. Low sales will concentrate the mind.