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Fraudulent ad by angry American lawyer in China

An American lawyer with an axe to grind about his former employer — a Chinese law firm — has been going public with all his complaints about the firm on his blog (use this link in China).

China Law Blog has been following the story and there has been a lively debate in their comments section about the angry American lawyer. See these posts: Chinese Law Gossip and Is China Lawyer Blog finished?

Today this Google ad appeared on Danwei:

fake_zhong_lun.jpg

The name of the law firm is the angry American lawyer's former employer. But there is no website at zhonglunlawfirm.com.

Your correspondent clicked on the ad because I remembered that the real URL of the law firm was zhonglun.com. Something seemed fishy.

Surprise, surprise, the ad is not actually linked to zhonglunlawfirm.com but to the angry lawyer's blog.

The same ad is currently being displayed on Peking Duck, but without the fake URL:

fake_zhong_lun_2.jpg

Note to Google: I understand the terms of your service are that I must not click on ads on my own site, but I hope you agree that an exception can be made in this case because I was investigating a fraudulent advertisement.

There are currently 7 Comments for Fraudulent ad by angry American lawyer in China.

Comments on Fraudulent ad by angry American lawyer in China

Wow. Wow. I thought Google did not allow this. For instance, I was under the impression that my law firm could not advertise under, let's say, the name O'Melveny & Myers, so as to have people googling O'Melveny go over to my firm. I even thought there was a lawsuit on this. So IF it is illegal in the US, does this mean it is illegal when only Google is in the US? Anyone know?

Ignoring the law for a moment, this whole thing is pretty unbelievable.

As far as I know, Google does not allow this.

But Google's technology does not yet know what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

He's really doing everything possible to get himself out there - I'm sure you guys received an email asking you to add his blog to you blogroll, etc...

I guess he's going for maximum impact in minimum time, seeing if he can't get anyone major to bite on the story and force his employer to back down in face of horrible PR. Or, alternatively, he doesn't actually exist, and really this is the work of someone at a rival law firm trying to taking Zhong Lun down.

Either way, the horribly bitter tone is hardly helping his cause.

If this guy actually was wronged by the Zhong Lun law firm, it does not seem that posting fraudulent ads would help his cause at all. In fact, it makes me a little more skeptical about his tales.

I'm sure Google won't notice a personal click or two hidden in the torrent of AdSense traffic. Joel was telling some of us (an entire bar actually) about your problems spending all the cash. I suggested diversifying into platinum.

Wow, another pussy lawyer being a pussy. Wow, what a surprise. I hope he doesn't come back to America. Like we need more lawyers.

I agree that this gentleman's method may leave a lot to be desired...BUT how many times have you heard or used the expression "Mei Banfa"?

Perhaps, getting creative (by being destructive) was the only way he felt he could be compensated for his work rendered or whatever his grievance is.

I don't condone his behavior BUT what motivated him to do this??????

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