Why I hate zero click so much

Zero click advertising is full of scammers.

The idea behind zero click domain monetization makes perfect sense. Instead of making a website visitor click a link on a parked page, why not just forward them to a relevant advertiser?

The problem, as I’ve written about many times, is that the channel is rife with scammers. Until zero click providers find a way to keep scammers off their systems, I will continue to write about their failures.

I have a particular disdain for people who use misdirected web traffic for nefarious purposes. Sometimes they try to trick people to download browser extensions. Many of their victims are likely elderly people, and I hate those who try to trick vulnerable people.

Today, I visited a domain name in Chrome and it forwarded to a trick message designed to get people to download a Chrome extension after passing a “security check”. The domain did the same thing in Firefox. When I visited in Microsoft Edge, I saw the fake security site pictured above. (I didn’t click on “OK” on the dialog box, because who knows what that would have done.)

Zero click providers: clean up your act.