1. What’s your name?

Larry Wingo, I started advertising with Google in October, 2004.

2. Profession?

I’m a real estate broker

Does your company have a website we can link to?

I’m not looking for customers for this interview.

3. Phone # (switchboard and direct line) and work address.

4. What does your company do specifically. What types of clients do you have?

I’m in real estate finance, only. My ads with Google-the-Goliath were for the most difficult type of real estate loans, ‘hard money’ loans.

5. What exactly was your relationship to Google?

I was one of their stoolies. I placed my trust in their advertising program and found out why advertisers can’t trust the Goliath, Google. They use a checkbox, which is checked by default and without adequate explanation to clients, like me. Then they turn your account over to a pack of thieves who trick people into clicking on your ads. The crooks make money and the Goliath makes money and everyone is wearing a smile, except the stoolie. We pick up the tab. I’m not alone. I found Ameriquest’s ads on the porno site too. I even took a picture of it and saved it on my computer. I’m going to use it for evidence, when I find someone doing a ‘CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT’ against the Google Goliath. If we can’t bring them down, maybe we can tarnish their reputation enough to make investors skiddish about the ‘bubble bursting’. Everyone on Wallstreets says the profits and stock’s value don’t jive and there’s going to be a ‘Day of Reckoning’. I want to be part of it.

You paid for search ads?

I allowed Google to use boxes, checked by default, which is deceptive and dishonest, to start with, no explanations to tell me that crooked programmers could use redirects to trick clicks and force me to pay the bill. My ad costs quadrupled and the calls dropped to zero. I knew something was up, so I started digging. Fortunately, I have an unusual name and I was able to gather a lot of evidence that they were dupping me. I reported it to Google and since they own the search engine that produced all the evidence, all the evidence vanished! Poof! But I was one step ahead of them. I saved it on my computer and today, it’s on a disk, so they can’t get to it. Cha! Cha! Cha!

Someone was spamming your company name?

Spamming???? I never used the word ‘spamming’. What does spamming mean to you? This is a lot more harmful than mere spam. They stole money, right out of my account. I’m sure I’m not the only one. I may be one of the few who discovered it and reported it to them, but remember, they’re making money too. What if the police got paid, every time there’s a home burglary? Would home breakins increase? Of course they would! Duhhhhhhhhh!!! If the police profit, when crimes are committed, police will look the other way too! No surprise that Google can’t catch them. With all their brilliance, they can’t catch clever programmers. I don’t buy it. The crooks are affiliated with Google. That makes Google corrupt and a co-conspirator. The first contribution that Google made was the default checkboxes on AdSense. That sets up anyone who is unsuspecting to take it in the shorts, when the crooks get ahold of that URL.

I’m not clear exactly what your beef with Google is. Please explain clearly, step by step.

I got screwed! Google allows their affiliates to rewrite my ads, offering loans that I don’t make. The crooks redirect clicks so that viewers are tricked into clicking on my ad. I’m not a programmer. I don’t know how they did it, but when I do a search for hard money and I see a URL, click on it and look at where I am, it’s not a match. The URL I was supposed to get isn’t where I am. That’s crooked! That’s a redirect! Somebody has to pay for that click and for me, I was offering up to $4 a click. If Google give 80% to the crook, then the crook has a huge incentive to try to get $3.20 one million times a day. Wouldn’t you, if you had no ethics? Why should Google catch them? Google is making money too. Everybody wins and the customer is unaware. The customer might notice that his bills are quadruple and there aren’t any calls, but what do you do, quit advertising? Most people are not too good on the computer. They’re never figure it out. That’s why I have to speak out. I got it! I discovered the corruption and I want to expose them. I already called Ameriquest and informed them. I got a call from a Google thug who didn’t threaten me directly, but he let me know that I was cutting into his game and that I better stop. He tried to persuade me that it was Overture who did this to Ameriquest. But I directed him to the web page and showed him the ‘Google Search’ at the bottom of the page. Then I hung up on him.

Start with when all this started and provide details. Walk me through the whole thing.

What do I have to do, take you there? Google wiped out as much evidence as they could. There’s big money here. Like Charles Ponzi, they don’t want the bubble to burst, just yet. They want to make some money, first.

6. Tell me about your interactions with Google. Again, step by step: explain. What did you and the Google operator talk about?

You call companies today and what do you get? Recorded messages about how important your call is to them, but nobody ever picks up the phone. When I put my account on ‘Pause’ I got an email from someone, but when I replied, I got an autosponder. What kind of service is that? Most of the time, they send out automatic replies that have absolutely nothing to do with your email. It’s written by an algorithm and it isn’t AI. It isn’t even an intelligent response. I got very bad service from Google and I had to stop telling people what a great company it is, because it no longer is useful to me, except as a search engine, perhaps. The lambs go into the slaughterhouse and you know what happens to them there. If you don’t know a lot about what Google is doing, you’re going to get screwed. If you complain, they get rid of you, like eBay does.

OK, that’s a start.

And thanks. Look forward to reading what you have to say.

Now, let me ask you a few questions. What is your affiliation with Google? Why are you concerned? Do you have Google ads on your websites? Are you collecting information to hand to Google, in their defense? Do you have any affiliation with any law firm representing Google on any suit?

Larry Wingo
310 530-1555

Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:54:32 -0400
Subject: Re: Wired: feedback: Story: Click Fraud: Problem and Paranoia
From: "Adam L. Penenberg" Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book
To: "Larry Wingo"
Good. Let me email you questions to start, and I’ll follow up with a phone call.

1. What’s your name?

2. Profession? Does your company have a website we can link to?

3. Phone # (switchboard and direct line) and work address.

4. What does your company do specifically. What types of clients do you have?

5. What exactly was your relationship to Google? You paid for search ads? Someone was spamming your company name? I’m not clear exactly what your beef with Google is. Please explain clearly, step by step. Start with when all this started and provide details. Walk me through the whole thing.

6. Tell me about your interactions with Google. Again, step by step: explain. What did you and the Google operator talk about?

OK, that’s a start.

And thanks. Look forward to reading what you have to say.

On 7/22/05 5:43 PM, "Larry Wingo" wrote:

Yes!

"Adam L. Penenberg" wrote:

Would you be willing to do an interview with me about your Google
experience? I think it would make a good column for me and provide a public
service. What do you think?
--a

On 7/19/05 7:51 PM, "Larry Wingo" wrote:

> I'm looking for a new search engine to run ads on, because in my opinion,
> Google is now run by a bunch of crooks. The service is absolutely terrible,
> in every category. I just got off the phone with Heather W. Several times,
> I complained that her voice was cutting out. You would think that Google
> could afford better equipment for their representatives. On June 20th, I
> spoke to Heather. She didn't give me her last name, but gave me a number to
> call. Like so many companies, Google uses an automated system. The recording
> asks for the last name of the person youâ€Å¡re trying to reach. If Google
> representatives don't give their last names, how can anyone reach them? Is
> this the plan? Less work that way? Sure seems like it. The result is poor
> service.
>
> I'm in finance and I work with some very wealthy clients. I don't need bad
> publicity, bu my ad campain was dragged through the mud, when their affiliates
> tricked people into clicking on my link, by offerring loan programs that I
> don't offer and my ads were even shown on porno sites. That's all I need is
> to have one of my $40 million clients discover that I'm advertising on porno
> sites. So I complained to Google and all those links disappeared, but I kept
> the evidence on my computer and I can substantiate my claims, concretely. If
> you're suing Google, in a class action lawsuit, I'd like to participate.
>
> I complained to my credit card company and they reversed the charge, for one
> month only, but I was overcharged over a period of a few months. During that
> time, my bill quadrupled and I wasnâ€Å¡t getting any calls. That's why I got
> suspicious and started checking into it. I found porno sites, featuring my
> ads, along with Countrywide, Ameriquest and others. The Ameriquest ad was
> adjacent to "Anal Sex". Imagine that! At the bottom of the page, "Google
> Search". That proves to me that it's a Google affliliate, not an Overture
> affiliate, as some Google people have claimed. I called Citifinancial and
> others to inform them. Some responded by raising complaints, as I did, but
> the ads are still there, today. Some have been removed also, like
> http://sexgirlspics.com
> If you click on this link, you'll find it's gone. So is this one...
> www.granny-sex-tgp.com/
> The perpetrators have moved on, like charletons in the old west, selling snake
> oil, who would just set up shop in another small town. The computer
> programmers who fool their viewers into clicking on our ads will obtain
> another domain and be right back in business, tomorrow. Do you think Google
> is going to crack down on them if theyâ€Å¡re making money from the fraud? Not if
> you know about human motivation, greed and if you "follow the money".
>
> Most small advertisers want to reach prospective customers from a small radius
> and for me, that circle is about 120 miles, but the IP address locates AOL
> customers, who live in California, with Texas or Virginia. That's because of
> a rotary system. A user doesn't know where it will appear they are located.
> When I used a radius, I received few clicks, so I paid extra to advertise
> nationally. Then my clickthrough ratio suffered. There is a lot wrong with
> the Google system and it's not all about crooks running the "medicine show".
> Some of it is incompetence and normal "growing pains".
>
> When you're given a phone number by a Google representative and the options
> given don't allow you to reach the rep, something's wrong. When I complained,
> the Google rep who heard my complaint said heâ€Å¡d do something about it. I
> asked if I can have Heather's last name and he refused. He said that nobody
> gives their last name. I asked, Then why does the telepone message ask the
> caller to punch in the first letters of the last name? Are you aware of that?
> I asked Heather if she ever thought of calling herself and going through the
> system she put me and her other customers through. She hasnâ€Å¡t. She added
> that she hasn't had any complaints. I said, "No wonder! Your customers can't
> reach you. Did you ever wonder why no one calls you back?"
>
> So, with my ads rewritten and my good name dragged through the mud with
> association with porno sites and no way to complain to Google that results in
> anything, but an autosponder, I went to my credit card company and made my
> complaint there. American Express was truly American and they expressed my
> ire with a chargeback. Ah hah! The good guys won, right? No. Google
> promptly cancelled my ads! They give me bad service and if I don't like it,
> they simply cancel my account and cut me off from the world of search engine
> advertising. This kind of power reminds me of the days when Bill Gates
> controlled the world and if you said anything publically about him, he could
> crush you and your entire company would suffer the consequences.
>
> The people at Google don't care about their customers. If they did, they'd be
> more responsive to legitimate complaints about their systems. It used to be a
> great company, but I'm predicting that there will be a sharp decline in the
> stock's value.
>
> Join me in a class action lawsuit against them!
>
> Larry Wingo of Torrance, California
> 310 530-1555
>
> Sites I had to exclude...
>
> Edit existing excluded sites for Campaign #1
> select all Showing 1-20 of 20 sites.
> crazyfinder.com
> newestsearch.com
> www.801zerodown.com
> www.granny-sex-tgp.com/
> freshsearch.net
> page-private-mortgage-investor.html
> www.again2002.co.kr
> www.onlineloan411.com
> hard-money.fastfind.me.uk/
> search.ezanga.com
> www.fast-search-engine.com
> www.pingposh.com
> hard.money.loan.hippo.info
> sexgirlspics.com
> www.fhamortgage-203kloans.net
> www.rightonblog.net/
> ms-directory.org
> tomatosearch.com
> www.gp32.co.kr
> www.search2find.net

I had a problem with Google and I tried to resolve it, but the bureaucracy there prohibits dissension. Google impedes any contact with them. They don’t volunteer their email address or any phone numbers at all. If you click on ‘Contact Us’, you get the run around.

My web pages have been removed from Google’s web searches, because I complained about their system. I have proof that they allowed my web pages to be advertised on porno sites and I’m not the only advertiser that was advertised there. I found many prominent companies there too. One example is Ameriquest Mortgage. I informed them and Google didn’t like it. I tried to warn others on the internet and Google, who sort of controls the press, zapped my web pages from their search results.

We’ve seen this before. This is what happens when too much power falls into the hands of one entity, like a dictator. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely. Dictators always try to get control of the press so they don’t have to read anything bad about themselves. Google has too much power, being the preeminent search engine gives them enough power, but add to that the control of the search results and you have tyranny, not unlike the Bill Gates tyranny that Google replaces.

I have some very large clients. The net worth of one investor is $40 million. He is doing business with me. I don’t want my name associated with porno sites. It’s not funny to search my name and find it associated with granny-sex-pictures.com. If this happened to you, I’m sure you’d protest too, if you could. How do you reach them? Google doesn’t allow advertisers to protest, so I contacted my credit card company and explained that Google dragged my reputation through the mud. Google even allowed their affiliates to rewrite my ads and offer loans that I don’t make. This is in violation of California Real Estate law and American Express reversed the charges for that month. Google responded by cutting off my ads. They gave me an ultimatum. Pay them for trashing my name and putting my license at risk or lose the account. I stood on principal and forfeited the account. Now, I’m taking my protest to the internet. The only thing is, they control the press there!

Don’t let this happen to you. If they drag your name through the mud and put your license at risk, just pay them, because it doesn’t pay to stand up against the Goliath Google.

Larry Wingo
310 530-1555

Yeah, I may pay them too keep them quiet, but they are charging me and I have never used them. This is the second time they have charged my credit card and I had the past one cancelled because of them and they found me again. So I am gettting charged over $800 for NOTHING and have to fight with my credit card company AGAIN and they may wonder why I want the charges from the same company taken off my bill as I had never even heard of them before they billed me. For what I can tell this is a complete scam and will lock people in no matter if they ever contacted them or not. I for one am interested in finding all that have been screwed by them and getting our rights back.

For being such a large business productive they seem to be doing things that will bring it to the ground. I for one could care less as long as they stop charging me for NOTHING. I just found out what they did after the second time I have been charged so I know for a fact I did not otherize them to bill my card for one red cent, let alone for $800.

This is my 2 cents which from Google would cost me a cool $1,000,000 probably the way they do business.

Kevin

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:25:55 GMT
Google Sued For Ignoring Click Fraud

http://www.kbcafe.com/adwords/?guid=20050630082555