About 150,000 euros are used annually for search engine advertisements by Kela and the Digital and Population Agency.
Official services buy advertising space from Google. In addition to this, fraudsters also buy advertising space in the name of official services. In other words, authorities are competing for advertising space with fraudsters.
– According to my understanding, this is aimed at tackling the visibility of scam websites. It is a competition for search engine visibility and which search results are visible more. Certain banks have also had to do the same, Marketing Finland’s CEO Riikka-Maria Lemminki tells.
Marketing Finland was previously known as the Association of Advertisers. According to Lemmik, they cooperate with internet giants and social media services, where they try to improve their advertising practices.
Iltalehti previously reported on a wave of scams, where those looking for official services can end up being the target of a scam and lose up to thousands of euros to the scams. The cyber security center and the police have also warned about this.
The profitability of buying advertising space can be seen as questionable if fraudsters use the same channel. A person looking for services may not know when it is an advertisement bought by the agency and when it is a scam page.
When scams appear, the entities that bought ads have to contact the companies that maintain the advertising space. The problem with the administrators of the advertising space is that they do not necessarily verify the content of their ads, and the reaction to scams is not always fast enough.
– This is an unbearable situation. Those who have bought advertising space have tried to appeal to the platforms that they should improve the recognition of the content of their advertisements and their reaction to them, says Lemminki.
Kela’s services
Kela says that advertisements are bought as part of their communication. Search terms aim to direct people to the right information.
– People often look for information on Google, for example, so with search word advertising we can effectively guide them to the right channels and up-to-date information, Kela’s communications manager Minna Rantala tells Iltalehti by email.
Kela also maintains OmaKanna’s online service. According to Kela’s communications, about 35,000 euros were spent on search engine ads last year for Kela and about 40,000 euros for OmaKanna.
As an example of OmaKanna’s operations, Kela’s communication says that there were several false versions of the corona certificate. With the help of online advertising, people found the right certificate better.
Kela states that scam pages are a criminal activity. According to them, however, advertisements should not be left in the hands of criminals, but should instead compete with search engine advertisements.
– During the first large waves of fraud, we suspended search keyword advertising, but we concluded that it is in the interest of our customers that our services appear at the top of Google results in the future.
Rantala says that Kela constantly monitors the situation of advertisements and that they make changes if necessary.
The Tax Administration currently does not advertise in search engines
The Tax Administration last advertised in search engines in 2018. At that time, they had a webinar intended for freelancers. The total price of the campaign at that time was 255.88 euros.
– It is not in our interests to continue with search engine ads at the moment, the Tax Administration comments to Iltalehti.
In addition to search engine advertising, the Tax Administration has bought ads from other Google services, such as the video service from YouTube. The tax administration last advertised on YouTube in 2021.
10,000 euros per month for search engine advertising from the Digital and Population Information Agency
The Digital and Population Data Agency (DVV) says it spends 5,000 euros per site per month on search engine advertising. There are two sites they maintain. The reasons for advertising are the same as at Kela.
However, the agency is relatively young, as it was founded in 2020. It is therefore appropriate to inform citizens about the activities of the new agency.
– Keyword advertising is important in the early stages of a new agency, but it is possible that keyword advertising will be needed less in the future when citizens and organizations find our services, DVV’s marketing manager Pirjo Koivunen tells Iltalehte.
The websites maintained by DVV include the pages of the Digital and Population Information Agency and the suomi.fi citizen service. The total number of visits to the websites last year was more than 15 million.
“Internet security is in the interest of all of us”
The agencies recommend that their sites be saved in the browser bookmarks, from which users can get to the right pages when scams are in motion.
A global association of advertisers has also sought to address the issues. Marketing Finland is driving along GARM projectwhich is supposed to create solutions on how to fight against harmful ads online.
– Internet security is in the interest of all of us, Marketing Finland’s Lemminki says.
In addition to Google, the project also involves many social media platforms, such as Meta’s services, Tiktok, Twitter and Snapchat. According to Lemmink, development for the better has already taken place even at the algorithm level. Algorithms define, among other things, what content the user gets to see in the network’s services.
Advertising revenue is indeed one of the biggest sources of income in internet services. Everyone benefits from the fact that the content is responsible enough and advertisers can trust the ad space providers.
– Fraudulent advertisements are a really unpleasant phenomenon, they ruin everyone’s reputation, Lemminki states.
However, online scammers and scam ads are unfortunately difficult to eradicate from the internet. Scammers are one of the biggest problems on the web, and their activity will only increase in the future. Experts have also been concerned about how artificial intelligence will promote the credibility of scams.
According to the “Beware, ensure and warn” campaign Finns lost a total of 32.4 million euros in online scams in 2022. The actions of the authorities were able to prevent monetary losses of 14.5 million euros. In 2021 Finns lost to scams a total of about 47 million euros.
If you suspect that you have been the victim of a scam, you should contact the bank first, so that a possible money transfer can be prevented. In addition, the victim of a crime must also report a crime to the police.