Bing will stop showing advertisements for tech support services; mainly because a large portion of these happen to be scams. The idea is that this will make it safer for those who are still using Bing to surf the internet by reducing their exposure to potential cybercriminals.
Tech support scams come in many forms; with some scammers resorting to cold calling potential victims. However, the less proactive scammer will simply put out an ad that looks like a virus warning; and wait for the unsuspecting victim to make contact. This has the added advantage of being able to capture those who are not tech savvy enough to know that they are being scammed.
Microsoft has been working to clamp down on tech support scammers, and this is will likely have a larger impact that issuing PSAs.
However, Redmond is not alone in trying to make the internet a safer place. Both Google and Facebook have stopped displayed payday loans; a scam that isn’t quite prevalent in this side of the world but traps a large number of people in the US.
[Source: Bing Ads]
