Illustration by Erik Carter
Thousands of families have witnessed fake obituaries of loved ones crowd Google search results. As The Verge reported in February, the obituaries — which often appear to be AI-generated — target everyday people, not just celebrities, and are written to extract clicks and subsequent ad revenue from readers.
A new report by watchdog organization Check My Ads traced some of the middlemen profiting from obituary spam: ad exchanges, or the companies that connect brands that want to run ads and websites on which ads will appear.
One of the sites the Check My Ads report focused on is HausaNew.com.ng, a content mill that, until recently, was churning out obituaries and news about local deaths in towns across the US. The site published an…
