Google Ads data: $4M stolen through crypto phishing URLs

[_act_]

Ads are dangerous, it can be used by hackers and scammers. It is better to avoid ads completely, do not click on any ad and be using ad blockers. This has been what we have discussed before on this forum several times, but if some people are not yet victims, they will not learn. See data on how some people have lost money because of google ads:

Google Ads data: $4M stolen through crypto phishing URLs

Data from Google Ads coupled with blockchain analytics reveals that over $4 million has been stolen from users that have fallen for malicious phishing websites promoted on Google.

Avoid all types of ads.

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[BIT-BENDER]

Not just adverts make sure to avoid malware’s, unnecessary sites, there are dangers everywhere in the internet and it’s really hard to avoid them.

A good way of staying safe is using the device that has your Bitcoin wallet safely, you are better off having an offline wallet.

You can learn how to create your own cold wallet storage and more about it here.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5237614.msg54149363#msg54149363

It’s really helpful because your wallet are safest offline.

[Crypt0Gore]

The moment you visit a new website there is a chance that the website will display Ads and you won't be able to control anything unless you close the tab, some websites are this annoying.

There is no way you will browse on your PC and Ads won't do their thing, the solution is using an Ad-blocker.

I can't lose my crypto to scammers through my PC because I don't run any crypto wallet software on my PC, I believe doing this is automatically not safe, it is way easier to get into a trap while browsing on your PC than anywhere else.

Use an Ad blocker, get browser plug-ins from official websites, get an antivirus running, and be careful visiting any websites.

[Merit.s]

We should be careful of ads that we see on our phones or laptops and not to click on them thinking that it is a legit platform. Malware is another way in which scammers use in phishing. It has always been an advise here on the forum on ignoring whatever kind of link you see while making use of the internet because you never can tell who is a scammer until you have been scammed. These are one of the reasons why we should be active on the forum to listen to advice and get information that will protect our privacy and keep our investment safe. An Ad blocker will keep you safe from these scammers.
Thanks OP, for a reminder.

[Churchillvv]

Ads are dangerous, it can be used by hackers and scammers. It is better to avoid ads completely.

I don't think it's feasible to totally eliminate advertisements... Nearly all applications have advertisements, and the worst part is that even if you pay for a premium version to remove them, they will still appear. That is so f**king annoying.
There is a specific kind of advertising fraud called "Click Spamming/Click Flooding" that is exceedingly difficult to resist.
This variation targets mobile websites and applications particularly. The website or app conducts clicks in the background while continuing to function properly for the user. Because they never saw it, users are never even aware that they interacted with in-app advertisements.
Another is known as domain spoofing.
Fraudsters typically utilize this form of to pretend to be a high-value domain that is more valuable and more an asset. Although the user and impressions are genuine, the money invested on the subpar website is not justified. Cross-Domain Embedding, Custom Browsers, and Human Browsers are a few examples of domain spoofing. Examples of this scam include websites like Amazon that have been cloned; it will be difficult to detect this because when you buy goods, they will never be delivered, and Metamask is another example of website that can be cloned, when cloned it vanishes after you enter your log-in information. 

[Nwada001]

Google ads were meant for advertisement purposes and were a faster way to reach out to people. These days, Google ad's are becoming so annoying, they just don't care if they show you something or not.

With or without ad blocker, we can all avoid falling victim to all this phishing scam. Most of these ads are active on sites that we visit; not all sites support ads, but we can avoid those that do.

One thing is for the ads to open; another thing is for one to be foolish enough to be tempted by whatever the ads show him or her that will make them dive in. In one way or another, it's users that actually authorize those ads to gain access to their devices, or they second-handly give authorization to some sites they bump into from the ads because of the tempting offers they see on them.

Google itself is just out there to make money; they don't actually care what advertiser paid them to advertise; they just integrate and post whatever anyone willing to pay gives them. If not, ordinarily, some scam link can easily be identified by the Google team and stopped from ever being posted.

[Peanutswar]

How does Google earn? Advertisements of course, can easily make a run of advertisement with the Google search and every time the user checks a platform they will automatically recommend it at the top, Based on my experience I'm using the Brave browser with their feature of rewards through browsing which is the BAT token and the Duckduckgo. Once you connect in the internet there is no safe data.

[stompix]

I personally think the numbers are way off.
$4 million maybe only with the most used keywords, and only checking the most known exchanges, if I would just throw an estimate at least half of that sum was for sure stolen only through chipmixer clones, and there is a lot now ay to count how much people have lost on those. But based on the dozens of websites and they never-ending promotions through adsense must have been pretty lucrative.
And that as just one tiny service, I would easily put another zero on that number.

With or without ad blocker, we can all avoid falling victim to all this phishing scam. Most of these ads are active on sites that we visit; not all sites support ads, but we can avoid those that do. One thing is for the ads to open; another thing is for one to be foolish enough to be tempted by whatever the ads show him or her that will make them dive in.

Phishing adsense scams don't work like that and are not triking users with fake promises.

How this works is that the scammers pay for ads that get shown when somebody searches for example "Binance" or
A ton of users are too lazy to type the whole URL and they simply type the name of the website in google and then click the first result, without checking that the ad which claims Binance is leading to biancexzyaax.is for example

Here is the original report from scam sniffer:
https://twitter.com/realScamSniffer/status/1651452380385509377

[sokani]

Ads are dangerous, it can be used by hackers and scammers. It is better to avoid ads completely, do not click on any ad and be using ad blockers. This has been what we have discussed before on this forum several times, but if some people are not yet victims, they will not learn. See data on how some people have lost money because of google ads:

Google Ads data: $4M stolen through crypto phishing URLs

Data from Google Ads coupled with blockchain analytics reveals that over $4 million has been stolen from users that have fallen for malicious phishing websites promoted on Google.

Avoid all types of ads.

Thanks for sharing this. Hackers and scammers are really getting smarter by the day. They have gone from sending links to their targets through email, wallets, telegrams etc. to embedding malware on Google ads, one just has to be careful. This is also bad for Google because from the business perspective, it will discourage people from clicking ads and reduce revenue generation.

[Doan9269]

Ads are dangerous, it can be used by hackers and scammers. It is better to avoid ads completely, do not click on any ad and be using ad blockers.

This is just a simple and complete warning to give or advice anyone concerning ads, i understand it rbtice one when seen but most of them were on the intention to physh on user data when click upon, ad is just a simple similarities between online link address whereby many have seen that it's not good enough to click or open because of their countless experience on attacks, ads just come in another dimension on same risk if you just click upon any message link popping on your screen that redirect you to a Google form or website requiring for data entry, let's take heed in avoiding ads because as simple as they can appear can be also very risky in terms of malicious physhing attempt.

[coupable]

Avoid all types of ads.

Unfortunately, this is almost impossible today, unless I stop using the Internet completely. Or let's say that this is no longer possible today with the increasing demand for Internet use and the launch of various applications. Ad blocking applications such as adblock may be highly secure, but they cannot stop all types of advertising, since some of them may appear in a form affiliated with the original content of the site, or the site will not work until after disabling adblock. Literally, it is not possible to stop the movement of ads on various media, because most of the benefits come mainly from ads, without which these applications would not have existed in the first place.
The best advice is to encourage the use of adblock since it works fairly often and to avoid clicking on any of the links shown by the ads.

[erep]

Phishing adsense scams don't work like that and are not triking users with fake promises.

How this works is that the scammers pay for ads that get shown when somebody searches for example "Binance" or
A ton of users are too lazy to type the whole URL and they simply type the name of the website in google and then click the first result, without checking that the ad which claims Binance is leading to biancexzyaax.is for example

I don't think about the keywords used in web searches but just wondering why phishing sites can be added to links on google ads, does the ads team manually check for every site added to google ads or check bots, if using bots then it's possible that bugs are used for the redirect process to phishing without being detected by bots. However, we must avoid opening links from google ads because it is not guaranteed that every search keyword will recommend official ads links and I use additional extensions on my browser to remove ads to avoid phishing.

[Potato Chips]

Yeah, google search ads are infested with scams. Thankfully, ublock origin does a good job at omitting them from my search results. I use it on my PC and android phone - firefox, I suggest those who haven't tried it to give it a try, see: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock. Alternatively, there's also duckduckgo - search engine without ads.

Note: this doesn't mean that you should go around trusting whatever is in your first search result as I'm only talking about omitting ads on search results.

[Ultegra134]

The moment you visit a new website there is a chance that the website will display Ads and you won't be able to control anything unless you close the tab, some websites are this annoying.

There is no way you will browse on your PC and Ads won't do their thing, the solution is using an Ad-blocker.

I can't lose my crypto to scammers through my PC because I don't run any crypto wallet software on my PC, I believe doing this is automatically not safe, it is way easier to get into a trap while browsing on your PC than anywhere else.

Use an Ad blocker, get browser plug-ins from official websites, get an antivirus running, and be careful visiting any websites.

Adblock works for pop-up ads, banners, video ads on YouTube, etc. These ads, which the OP is mentioning and another user pointed out with photos, appear on top of Google's organic results, and you can be easily tricked into thinking that you're clicking on the right website, but you're not. I highly doubt that adblock is effective at filtering these advertisements. Unfortunately, in the case of cryptocurrencies, these malicious advertisements are extremely common, and the only way to avoid them is by being careful enough.

The issue lies with Google, which isn't doing any serious background checks; these websites are constantly taken down and restarted with a different name and domain.

[EarnOnVictor]

Ads are dangerous, it can be used by hackers and scammers. It is better to avoid ads completely, do not click on any ad and be using ad blockers. This has been what we have discussed before on this forum several times, but if some people are not yet victims, they will not learn. See data on how some people have lost money because of google ads:
Avoid all types of ads.

Thanks for this. I was quick to know the internet when I was growing up, and as a smart guy, I have been extremely careful and it has helped me this far. Some of the measures I ensure these days as the tricks of scammers grow are to avoid unknown sites and links, particularly those that would be sent to me by email (even from the companies I know). I go to the URL myself to avoid issues.

I also use Adblocker on my browser, with my private browsing features fully on and always keep my premium antivirus running. One should also beware of touchscreen phishing where you don't have to click the link or ads, merely moving your finger around it will do the work for them.

[Yamane_Keto]

Avoid all types of ads.

The wording is incomplete, it made me ask a million questions in my head.

An amount of more than 4 million dollars during a month, year, quarter,
And how were they able to determine the amount, are they estimates or losses amount?
And what is the role of Google in stopping all these thefts? We have not heard of a development in their mechanisms or a decrease in the number of these links, although the sexual, terrorist and other content is being deleted faster.

Avoiding clicking on links is a good solution, but this does not absolve Google of responsibility.