Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of ads when playing games on my tablet. I checked on many of them and found they are misleading at best, and fraudulent at the worst.

That inspired me to write this post.

I contacted the game developer and had the reply that they get their ads from Meta. They said they’ll look into them, and in all fairness, some of the ads I’ve complained about have decreased significantly, but there are still too many. In fact, I would almost say that the majority are scams.

AI generated image from Pixabay

These are divided into several groups.

Common Types of Online Scam Ads

• Play to Earn Money: These ads show games where it appears you can earn significant amounts of money. One actually says that the actor (I assume it’s an actor) earned enough to give up her job and play the game 2-3 hours a day, earning enough to live. Another group have a poor person, always looking dirty! who can’t afford to buy food. She may attempt to steal either money or food. A kind person asks for her phone which she hands over. To a complete stranger, no questions asked! The stranger then downloads an app. She plays and immediately ‘wins’ a large amount of money. These ads are misleading at the least. The games do not give out anything like the amount of money suggested. They give pennies only for each game completed. Many of them have impossibly large amounts that have to be reached before you can cash out, and sometimes cashing out is made extremely difficult. Some don’t give you the cash at all.
• Deep Fakes: These ads use an AI generated image of a well-known celebrity who is endorsing something, often crypto. These are fake. AI generated videos use captured samples of the celebrity’s voice, and videos made from photos or other videos of the celebrity.
• Celebrity Impersonation: Another one is using Mr Beast’s image in the same way as above. This one shows Mr Beast handing out huge amounts of money to random strangers. He then says that you can ‘earn’ vast sums if you download his arrows game. He says he wants to help people. Now the real Mr Beast has nothing to do with this game. It’s a scam.
• Fake Products: These scams do actually have a product for sale. The ones I’ve seen are for a top with a built-in bra, a birdbath fountain thingy, advent calendars with amazing gifts, like lego, model vehicles, model highland cows, etc. And there’s one with a robotic puppy. If you buy from these, the product is shabby and of poor quality, or not as the ad says. The puppy one shows a very realistic puppy, running around and snuggling up to its owner’s face, just like a real puppy. It’s very appealing. But it’s AI generated, and the actual product apparently only moves forwards and backwards, and squeaks! Most of these have difficult return procedure: extremely high postage, or no return procedure at all. You may not even receive the product.

Every time I see an ad that looks appealing to me, I go to Google and ask if it’s legitimate. Most aren’t!

How to Spot a Scam

Of course, there are those that are legit, like the Red Cross, PayPal, the RSPCA, Vintage Cash Cow etc. But I warn you to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL about responding to online ads.

Always check their website. If an email address is a generic address, like Gmail or Hotmail, it won’t be genuine.

How to Protect Yourself

Here are some practical steps to protect yourself from online scam ads:

• Search before you click. If an ad looks interesting, Google the company or product name plus the word “scam” or “review” before doing anything else. What comes up will tell you a lot.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it is. No game will pay you enough to quit your job. No stranger online is giving away free money. No celebrity is personally endorsing a crypto scheme in a social media ad.
• Check the website carefully. Look for a professional domain (not Gmail or Hotmail), clear contact details, a returns policy, and secure checkout (https://). Poor grammar and spelling are also red flags.
• Reverse image search. If a product ad shows amazing photos, drag the image into Google Images to check if those photos appear elsewhere — often they’re stolen from other sites.
• Check reviews on independent sites. Look for reviews on Trustpilot, Reddit, or consumer watchdog sites — not just reviews on the seller’s own website.
• Report scam ads. If you see a scam ad, report it to the platform (Meta, Google, etc.) and to Action Fraud (in the UK) or your country’s equivalent consumer protection body.

The best defence against scams is a healthy scepticism. Take a moment to pause and check before you click, download, or buy — it could save you a lot of money and frustration.