WARNING! Google Chrome Scam discovery

[GoldenLad]

So I saw something online that might help inform if not help most users in this forum. I was doing a research concerning cryptos and saw a news about some adwords which are been placed on google for blockchain wallet users. These ads looks like a replicate of blockchain websites and any visitors to the site will fall viticm.

Though the ads has been taken down by Google but one needs to be careful cause it might resurface anytime. Aside shit ICOs, I guess these are among the reasons why Google  are forced to take harsh major decisions against digital coins.
More information; https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/920571/Google-Chrome-warning-fake-download-Bitcoin-scam-Google-Adwords

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[Xynerise]

Phishing ads are not a new thing even though they are a terrible problem.
Good thing Google is stopping cryptocurrency ass by June.
Should mitigate the problem somewhat

[Lucius]

So I saw something online that might help inform if not help most users in this forum. I was doing a research concerning cryptos and saw a news about some adwords which are been placed on google for blockchain wallet users. These ads looks like a replicate of blockchain websites and any visitors to the site will fall viticm.

Though the ads has been taken down by Google but one needs to be careful cause it might resurface anytime. Aside shit ICOs, I guess these are among the reasons why Google  are forced to take harsh major decisions against digital coins.
More information; https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/920571/Google-Chrome-warning-fake-download-Bitcoin-scam-Google-Adwords

You have not discovered anything new,fake sites are using Google AdWords so their web sites appear at the top of search results.For every inexperienced user this is easy trap which results in financial loss in most cases.Any user of internet can report suspicious links to GoogleSafeBrowsing, but it would be much easier and simpler to hire a few people to work on verification of such sites.Then such sites could not appear at all,or would appear in a very small percentage.

[ThePunisher49X]

I do find chrome is worse than firefox between using the two browsers at the same time.
I found that these phishing links show up more on chrome.

I am beginning to move away from using google and their products.

They are becoming too intertwined in our everyday digital lives which is extremely dangerous for personal information and our cryptocurrency.

[Kprawn]

Phishing ads are not a new thing even though they are a terrible problem.
Good thing Google is stopping cryptocurrency ass by June.
Should mitigate the problem somewhat

What is good about this decision? Google blocking Crypto currency advertisements will not stop Phishing ads or fake emails

being send to people with Phishing links. What this will do, is stopping legitimate Crypto currency projects from having a

excellent link to a massive audience. They just found a lazy and cheap way to manage a problem that can be dealt with in

a much better way. 

[GoldenLad]

You have not discovered anything new,fake sites are using Google AdWords so their web sites appear at the top of search results.For every inexperienced user this is easy trap which results in financial loss in most cases.Any user of internet can report suspicious links to GoogleSafeBrowsing, but it would be much easier and simpler to hire a few people to work on verification of such sites.Then such sites could not appear at all,or would appear in a very small percentage.

Well, yes, probably I haven't discovered anything new or so, I was just surprised about how scammers have really gone far just to claim the work of others they haven't worked for, even right under the nose of Google. Of course I have heard about phishing; it was among the first safety majors I got to know about when I started out with bitcoin.
Thanks for the link (already bookmarked).
And agree, Google should really set out a team to verify adwords like this before been placed out.

[hugeblack]

Most of people do not know what is Bitcoin?  so the first result in Google search will be the point of confidence.
If you search for "bitcoin wallet" in Google you will find

• Ads: www.blockchain.com/Cryptocurrency/Wallet‎
• https://wallet.bitcoin.com/

It's good that Google will start banning all these ads and I hope there will be more promotion to download wallets from this site https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
This is probably why most of newbies use a wallet such as blockchain.info.

[Xynerise]

What is good about this decision? Google blocking Crypto currency advertisements will not stop Phishing ads or fake emails

being send to people with Phishing links.

It won't stop the problem completely, but it removes an avenue scammers use.
Users implicitly trust the results of search engines to be correct.
When a user searches for "Bittrex", he expects to be shown bittrex.com as the first option, not bIttrex.com.  So the user is trusting Google not to display phishing ads in the first place, and since it is a tough work to police cryptocurrency ass, it's best they just scrap it altogether.

What this will do, is stopping legitimate Crypto currency projects from having a

excellent link to a massive audience.

Most Ads are for ICOs and cloud mining anyway.
I think it's a good step in the right direction.
Legitimate projects can still spread with word of mouth, not with ads.

They just found a lazy and cheap way to manage a problem that can be dealt with in

a much better way. 

Do you have a better idea?

[GoldenLad]

It won't stop the problem completely, but it removes an avenue scammers use.
Users implicitly trust the results of search engines to be correct.
When a user searches for "Bittrex", he expects to be shown bittrex.com as the first option, not bIttrex.com.  So the user is trusting Google not to display phishing ads in the first place, and since it is a tough work to police cryptocurrency ass, it's best they just scrap it altogether.

Yes, you are right, it could be a tough work for Google to keep on monitoring every cryptocurrency ads that are been placed on their platform but still its their duty and they should be always watchful because most Chrome user completely trust them.

Do you have a better idea?

For me, I don't think there is any exceptional better way than what they have been doing by scrambling it. Probably after when Google finally implement the policy of banning all ICOs; there will be enough time to scrutiny any adwords for Cryptos wallet.

[timerland]

It's not just google chrome... Any browser can fall victim to this as long as the user searches through google.

And pretty much this is plagued throughout keywords that have anything to do with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Even with bitcoin mixers, there will be phishing sites out there that are pretty much 100% replicas trying to take your money.

And it's hard to guard against it because sometimes the domain names seem to match up 100%.

This is why you shouldn't click on any google ads. If you find something interesting, search up the keywords again and only click on the top suggestion or a confirmed official website. Usually real crypto businesses never advertise on google anyways, it's not money well spent for them. It's either shitty ICOs, or phishing scams.

[allahabadi]

I always make a Bookmark for the websites that I use and when going on a new site, I always cross check the link on their socmed channels.


That way you are safe, at times a cursory glance for https sites can also save you from such attempts.

[magneto]

So I saw something online that might help inform if not help most users in this forum. I was doing a research concerning cryptos and saw a news about some adwords which are been placed on google for blockchain wallet users. These ads looks like a replicate of blockchain websites and any visitors to the site will fall viticm.

Though the ads has been taken down by Google but one needs to be careful cause it might resurface anytime. Aside shit ICOs, I guess these are among the reasons why Google  are forced to take harsh major decisions against digital coins.
More information; https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/920571/Google-Chrome-warning-fake-download-Bitcoin-scam-Google-Adwords

Thanks for the heads up.

The user above me mentions it as well, bookmarking the bitcoin related site that you use often is a good practice. Have an entire bookmark folder dedicated to bitcoin stuff, if you have the ability to keep it organised.

That's the best option. Also, just never click on google ads at all. At all costs as well.

The range of phishing attempts is just absolutely out of anyone's mind. It can go from a news site phishing attack, to a wallet phishing attempt. And it can come from google ads which is very common, pretty much all google ads are phishing sites, or emails. Always check that you're going to the right URL. Never entire any passwords until you have verified you are on the right website.

[GoldenLad]

Thanks for the heads up.

You welcome. Thanks for the merit too.

The user above me mentions it as well, bookmarking the bitcoin related site that you use often is a good practice. Have an entire bookmark folder dedicated to bitcoin stuff, if you have the ability to keep it organised.

That's the best option. Also, just never click on google ads at all. At all costs as well.

The range of phishing attempts is just absolutely out of anyone's mind. It can go from a news site phishing attack, to a wallet phishing attempt. And it can come from google ads which is very common, pretty much all google ads are phishing sites, or emails. Always check that you're going to the right URL. Never entire any passwords until you have verified you are on the right website.

I agree on the option of not clicking on an Google ads. The disappointing thing here is that not every one knows about this way of phishing; at least, I never knew it has gone to the extreme. And again, most people are accustomed to always 'glancing' at the site URL the intends to visit without proper inspections and at the end , they fall bait to this.

[vintages]

Well, not that phishing is a new thing but you did a good thing by bringing it up here. Most people have been viticms of phishing and I do say its because of they carelessly clicks on site without verifying. I bet that site must have been a replicate of the main site. People whom are victims of this phishing attack will be the first to accuse the main site of stealing their coins without admitting that the fault was really theirs.

[GoldenLad]

Well, not that phishing is a new thing but you did a good thing by bringing it up here. Most people have been viticms of phishing and I do say its because of they carelessly clicks on site without verifying. I bet that site must have been a replicate of the main site. People whom are victims of this phishing attack will be the first to accuse the main site of stealing their coins without admitting that the fault was really theirs.

Thank you for the merit!
Yes, I can relate cause I have seen a lot of people blame the real site for their missing coins.I can say those whom might have been a victims of missing coins might have in one way or the another carelessly stumped on this. As we humans can be, we can't really admit that we might have wronged yet we will continue to hold on what we 'think' is right. Don't be surprised, even an experience website surfer might have fallen for this.