I just want to give a little more information on this lawsuit from reading the actual complaint, the lawsuit is around scams using the Google brand and logo that it suggests sponsorship by Google and showing them how to make money working from home with Google. Google has even received letters complaining about the fraudulent charges thinking they are actually coming from Google and have asked Google to cancel the charges as well as refund the money.
Now we know that it’s in the terms of service and on the site that it’s not actually a Google product or sponsored by Google but not in good positions and not highlighted enough to actually get people to read it. I am still flabbergasted by the amount of people who do not read terms of service before they put credit card information in but I think that has to do with brand trust as well. The FTC obtained an injunction and asset freeze in Nevada against a company which lead to the removal of some of the sites but the Pacific WebWorks sites still remain.
There is a class action lawsuit in Illinois but it is only for Illinois residence and under Illinois law so it will really have not affect on the way these scams are run or any effect in the removal of the scams from the internet. This is why this lawsuit is a good deal as it may actually get rid of some of these sites, I am unsure why Google has not mined its data and removed most of these sites from the indexes as it will actually slow the flow of traffic down a lot.
Google Attorney George Haley said “There’s a major national scam that’s going on across the country”, and went on to talk about Google is being blamed for the massive fraud by some consumers and state attorney generals and that Google wants to find out who is behind these scams that involve at least 2,650 sites.
It has also been mentioned that Google and Pacific WebWorks had reached an “agreement in principle” to settle the lawsuit, boo Google. Now in 2007 Utah Division of Consumer Protection reached a settlement with Pacific WebWorks on the E-Commerce Tutor that supposedly had instructions on how to make money with eBay, now it was using the same types of scams so to me this should be a breach of the settlement and they should be investigating too. The FTC has also filed a lawsuit last June that appears to be connected to Pacific WebWorks.
Now, I will express my disdain for the litigation system because it’s really only about money, if they are going to settle this is what it will probably amount too, Google gets paid, Pacific WebWorks stops using Google’s trademark and starts using a new mark from someone, they scam people for more millions, wait until that person sues, settle that case and move on. No one seems to really care about the consumer.
Google is only out to get its trademark out of the mix and I do not believe they give a damn what happens to the consumers. What do you think?
