The ad companies making money off of obituary spam

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...