Rockefeller: Moving-company scammers gaming Google

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said on Wednesday that scam moving companies have been manipulating search engine results to appear legitimate.

In letters to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, Rockefeller said an investigation by his committee staff found that the companies used paid links from other websites to inflate their own search rankings.

Search engines factor the number of outside links to a site when ranking it.

Rockefeller asked the companies to "review" his findings to improve their search results. 

He said that Internet search is a "powerful tool," but that the committee's investigation "shows that a number of moving companies are using Internet-based commerce to take advantage of consumers."

The investigation found that many companies promise customers to move their goods at one rate but then dramatically increase the costs once they have the people's belongings. The companies demand that the customers pay the higher rate to get their items back. 

A Google spokeswoman said the company makes 500 changes to refine its search algorithm every year and that it made a significant update in April aimed at combating link abuse schemes.

“We’re always looking for ways to make it harder for scammers to trick consumers, so we appreciate the specifics the committee provided. Sen. Rockefeller’s concerns point out how important it is that search engines continue to have the ability to constantly and quickly improve our results for our users,” the spokeswoman said.

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