Amul sends legal notice to Google India regarding fake ad campaigns

Dairy major Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), popularly known as Amul, lodged a police complaint and has issued a legal notice to Google India regarding individuals/organisations using its platform for fraudulent practices. According to the complaint, several people have fallen prey to fraudulent advertisements on Google search platform offering Amul distributorship.

The company issued a notice to Google on January 10 seeking to stop such advertisements.

"They (Google) have benefited from Google Search advertising campaigns, which are being misused to scam innocent individuals in the name of Amul in India," GCMMF managing director RS Sodhi said.

According to Amul, some individuals or organisations are running paid advertisements on Google platform using keywords such as 'Amul Franchisee', 'Amul Parlor' and 'Amul Distributor'.

Whenever a person clicks on these bogus links, he or she is asked to fill a form. The person then receives a call, seeking "registration fee" ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 5 lakh, but once the money is paid, the advertiser stops communicating, the company said.

Sodhi said several such victims had approached it. "Some of the victims claimed to have paid Rs 3 to 6 lakh. They were under the impression that they were dealing with Amul," he said.

"Apart from serving a legal notice to Google India, we have also filed a complaint with police. We also requested Google to crosscheck the background of the advertisers before accepting paid ads related to large companies like Amul," he said.

Google India spokesperson was not immediately available for comments.