Baidu and 360 Sou have announced bold changes to their consumer fraud protection programs.Baidu’s previous protection program, implemented in May, promised to compensate up to 5,000 RMB to consumers who had suffered monetary loss as a result of clicking on the portal’s search ads operated by fraudulent or phishing websites.

However on 8 August, Baidu announced the removal of its 5,000 RMB ceiling, and will now compensate consumers 100% of losses caused by malicious advertisers.

To be able to complete a successful compensation claim, consumers must be logged into Baidu so that the clicks can be verified.

Just as Baidu claimed some competitive ground in the Chinese search engine market with a bold fraud protection guarantee, 360 Sou were hot on their heels and too announced an offering of 100% fraud protection.

Baidu has been ushering its advertisers onto registering to its “V” VIP programme, which requires business registration verification as a part of the sign-up process.

In turn, the search engine is incentivising the business registration process for advertisers with perks such as shorter keyword and ad approvals, VIP status icons, and lower CPC for domestic advertisers.

This move should help Baidu to better regulate the quality of advertisers on its platform, and thus prevent the search engine having to compensate for the fallout of malicious ad practice.