Usual phishing warning

[libert19]

Op drop has arrived and scammers too.



Never rely on Google links, specially ads. Trust only official links, even then be cautious because official communication channels can and do get hacked.

[cryptoaddictchie]

With the OP airdrop surely this will be a new scheme for scammers. Many users were gonna received airdrops and likely they will try to do google search and see if they are eligible. Obviously they will connect wallet to check it ans once they do then thats it. Scammers will likely take advantage of this, as many rushes to get their Op tokens to sell.

Some scammers will likely almost copied or identical dapp for this so make sure that you are visiting from their official site and not just a copy cat website.

[Maus0728]

Google does not care if advertisements or phishing sites appear on their site because they allow bad advertising and are only interested in making a profit. This is why utilizing a browser extension like uBlockOrigin[1] to avoid accidently entering shady ads would be quite beneficial.

Another option is to use Firefox with DuckDuckGo as your search engine with UblockOrigin installed instead of the Google browser. The only trade-off is that, as compared to using Google, it may limit some of the search results.

[1] https://ublockorigin.com//

[traderethereum]

It seems that I have to reduce the level of trust in using Google as a medium for finding information because Google seems to only focus on making profits.
Their algorithm seems to have gone a long way in presenting really good information to users and paying less attention to scammers.
Hopefully, Google still pays attention to this and provides updates to its search engine so that scammer websites like @OP will not develop anymore.
But it seems that scammers will find other ways to deceive other people and we have to be careful in finding the information we want.

[pakhitheboss]

What can you expect from Google?
A company so big still doesn't have any mechanism to stop spam from appearing on their search algorithm. They also cannot stop scammers to advertise on their search page. Unless the community reports that advert will appear as soon someone enters a specific keywords. This why it is always advised to not click on ads that appear on the search page.

[NeuroticFish]

Never rely on Google links, specially ads. Trust only official links, even then be cautious because official communication channels can and do get hacked.

Exactly.
One rule about crypto links I've found out long ago is to look for the ANN page on bitcointalk, where that's possible (it exists), or at least the link itself on bitcointalk (since people could have been telling about it already).
If it's not here, it usually doesn't worth the hassle (scam or worthless)

[Jawhead999]

Most people still using google chrome as their main browser due to fast and quick among other browsers, but they didn't pay attention google is very bad about their privacy and ads, what they do are collecting the users data and gain so much money without selectively choosing a legit URL to promote. I guess many laptop and PCs had been installed with Mozilla, Mozilla are better than chrome.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I would not categorically blame Google for all mortal sins. Any mistake made when hitting a phishing site will still lie with the owner of the computer.

I don't trust many search engines. Before believing any information, you need to make sure by exploring several options. Today, the Internet is not only politicized, but besides that, there are a lot of scammers on it, so our security depends only on us.

Any browser that is considered good by others can become dangerous if you do not know how to properly handle it.

[acroman08]

another day, another phishing site on google's ad. with millions of people using their search engine on a daily basis you would assume google would be more strict on what ads they are putting on their platform. what's worse is that when the ad is reported, it takes so long for them to take action.

[Taskford]

Op drop has arrived and scammers too.



Never rely on Google links, specially ads. Trust only official links, even then be cautious because official communication channels can and do get hacked.

Just be more cautious upon searching because in google search engine there are so many phising site planted by hackers so better ask the official link to their telegram or discord channel so that we will not get fall on the wrong link and been victimize by those phising links wandering around the surface net.

[Lucius]

Google does not care if advertisements or phishing sites appear on their site because they allow bad advertising and are only interested in making a profit. This is why utilizing a browser extension like uBlockOrigin[1] to avoid accidently entering shady ads would be quite beneficial.

Given how easy it is to protect yourself from such dangers, it is all the more strange that Internet users still face something like Google ads in their browsers. I don't like commercials on TV and radio and I immediately switch to another program when they appear, and I wish the thing was as simple as with ads that appear online in various forms.

I’m not claiming that all ads are bad, but Google and its service have long been known as a phishing paradise, and it’s not something that’s just annoying, but also potentially dangerous.

[aysg76]

That's why don't prefer chrome while making search and other privacy browser are my options like Brave and no ads appear but as we know majority uses google chrome as the main browser while making any search and you will find ads for every search you make as the first result which are phising attempts by the scammers as mentioned in @OP but people click on them.

There are some ways of blocking them on google also like @Maus0728 has mentioned by having adblocks so that no such ads are displayed to you or try to turn them off in site settings which you will find in advanced settings of chrome and then block it which might help a little bit.

I would not categorically blame Google for all mortal sins. Any mistake made when hitting a phishing site will still lie with the owner of the computer.

Yeah we can't totally blame Google for such phising attempts as we also need to take responsibility in these things before clicking on any link as our security lies in our hand and we need to be aware about it.

Even if we talk about the forum also then there are many scammers trying to make people fool through many ways like selling their fake service but members give then negative tags and others can be aware about it to stay away from it but if you are ignorant about it and still fall for these scams it's your fault.So be wise enough not to fall for these kind of things easily.

[sheenshane]

What can you expect from Google?
A company so big still doesn't have any mechanism to stop spam from appearing on their search algorithm. They also cannot stop scammers to advertise on their search page. Unless the community reports that advert will appear as soon someone enters a specific keywords. This why it is always advised to not click on ads that appear on the search page.

They will take an action if there are various reports on such scam ads link, and Google only cares about the money they will get from those fraud ads but they didn't care about their users.  So, in a case like this, we can help to shut down the site by reporting them, just Report Phishing Page.

Airdrop phishing sites aren't new on Google, so we must be careful upon clicking suggesting ads there.  Ads blocking apps or stop using Google Chrome much better solution for this, it's shame that big company names can't even filter those scams ads.

I used the LibreWolf desktop app, it has DuckDuckGo for the browser and is safe for browsing.

[batang_bitcoin]

It's always the case that there will be phishers and scammers if there's an airdrop whether it be known or not. Google has never been interested in filtering all of those sponsored or paid ads being done by their advertisers. All they do is suck all of those money and take no accountable for their contribution as they've allowed that scammer to advertise on their platform, they always tolerate these scammers and even you send them bunch of reports, they'll just go unnotice, will remove the reported one but never take action for avoiding future the same incident.

[Rengga Jati]

Never rely on Google links, specially ads. Trust only official links, even then be cautious because official communication channels can and do get hacked.

For things like this, of course, don't just stick to links from Google. Not only scams like this but also phishing sites and fake links from websites, download applications, and so on. And it's true, we should go directly to the official group and website.
But unfortunately, not everyone understands this and many are still in the mindset that everything can be searched, obtained, and trusted from Google pages. We can't limit them and even Google doesn't care or doesn't know if the link is a scam or not. What we can do is notify like this and report the website to Google to be banned.

[Charles-Tim]

Never rely on Google links, specially ads. Trust only official links, even then be cautious because official communication channels can and do get hacked.

Search engines like Duckduckgo is better, using Google or other common browsers can display you ads that belongs to scammers. Ad blockers can be helpful also against ads, ads generally should be avoided. This is not a new means to scam, but it is not a surprise if heard that another person is scam as he clicked on link ads, just because people are always people are they are full of ignorance.

It is better to also be careful of Google products because the means of using their products to advertise creates ways for scammers to display scam people, example of such products is the Google play store which do list scam apps.

[Cuda911]

Yep, presently there is a bounty topic about this airdrop in bounty section of the forum and it's asking for users private key, I wonder why this type of post is still on, by now it should be put down by moderators and that account deserves to be blocked.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I would not categorically blame Google for all mortal sins.

I would.

Google is much more responsible for the existence of this fraudulent activity, than the ignorance of the users. Google doesn't care about your security and your privacy; they're quite happy to accept a scam or a phishing advertisement on top of their search results if there's money asides. They don't care if you might get hacked, lose money, die etc., as long as they make those sweet bucks.

Google is valuated at about $1.5 trillion, as of May 2022, and you think they can't hire a few hundreds of people who can check for the genuineness of these ads? They simply don't care.

[_act_]

I would not categorically blame Google for all mortal sins.

I would.

Google is much more responsible for the existence of this fraudulent activity, than the ignorance of the users. Google doesn't care about your security and your privacy; they're quite happy to accept a scam or a phishing advertisement on top of their search results if there's money asides. They don't care if you might get hacked, lose money, die etc., as long as they make those sweet bucks.

Google is valuated at about $1.5 trillion, as of May 2022, and you think they can't hire a few hundreds of people who can check for the genuineness of these ads? They simply don't care.

You are right.

But I am seeing in another direction, it is clear and known by the people and the government that google makes their users to be very vulnerable to scammers. But that is google, google is a company and not a law maker, google is just like other companies that can sue themselves to court because of wrong doing.

A company can be bias, a company can see their bias but will not amend it when the company notice that they have no competitor. Google competitor is Apple but Apple is for the rich people, aveareg people use Android which uses google search as default and people like it because they do not know what google is doing to them and how it has been monitoring them. Also people lesser than average but not poor also used Android, it can be second hand.

Google are to blame but the governments are more to blame because they can make laws that can stop google from making their users to be more vulnerable to online scam. What are the government doing about this? Nothing.

[NeuroticFish]

But I am seeing in another direction, it is clear and known by the people and the government that google makes their users to be very vulnerable to scammers. But that is google, google is a company and not a law maker, google is just like other companies that can sue themselves to court because of wrong doing.

Favoring a criminal or being accessory to crime is a crime. As simple as that. Google is doing that, but normal people prefer to watch their back instead of fighting Google's million dollar lawyers.

A company can be bias, a company can see their bias but will not amend it when the company notice that they have no competitor. Google competitor is Apple but Apple is for the rich people, aveareg people use Android which uses google search as default and people like it because they do not know what google is doing to them and how it has been monitoring them. Also people lesser than average but not poor also used Android, it can be second hand.

This is not about rich or poor, it's not even about Android or Apple (do you really think that latest top Android devices are for the poor??!???!?!?), no. Google has the top search engine. They use it to earn money and they play the "careless" game because even those scammers are paying customers.

Google are to blame but the governments are more to blame because they can make laws that can stop google from making their users to be more vulnerable to online scam. What are the government doing about this? Nothing.

Nothing is what governments do best. On any field. If your expectations are high in that direction... well... you are highly unrealistic.