Google sponsored ad redirects crypto users to a phishing site

[Myleschetty]

Just want to warn the newbies and others to be more careful when using the Google search engine, as hackers are now using Google-sponsored ads to redirect crypto investors to phishing sites where their crypto holdings will be drained. Approximately $1.27M was lost by Hyperliquid users for the month of March, and some Trezor wallet users have been victims of the phishing ad.
A fake Uniswap ad drained at least $400,000.

[OcTradism]

Just want to warn the newbies and others to be more careful when using the Google search engine, as hackers are now using Google-sponsored ads to redirect crypto investors to phishing sites where their crypto holdings will be drained.

Google has bad history and reputation of such sponsored advertisements. When people search with Google to find something for example cryptocurrency wallets or cryptocurrency exchanges, it's not barely to see phishing sites or phishing fake applications appear at top and are recommended by Google.

It's more hilarious but very unacceptable because with most famous keywords like famous cryptocurrency exchanges or wallets, Google must know about these things and they certainly are able to proactively filter words to block all phishing sites and applications. They can do that quite easily and they just don't want to do that, just want to let phishing sites appears on top of search results.

Same with Meta (Facebook) recent months, many scam advertisements that direct people to phishing sites, but even users reported such things, Meta refused to remove such scam advertisements.

[tabas]

There have been so many of these ads that google has never filters. And that's why as part of the community we have to do it on our own so that they'll be the ones to notice it through reporting. They don't care about these ads as long as they get paid and that's why we have to report all of these phishing sites if we come across it through their reporting link.

Code:

https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/

[_act_]

There have been so many of these ads that google has never filters. And that's why as part of the community we have to do it on our own so that they'll be the ones to notice it through reporting. They don't care about these ads as long as they get paid and that's why we have to report all of these phishing sites if we come across it through their reporting link.

There are many people that are not on a forum like this and they do not know that they are scam ads until they have been scammed or their wallet has already been hacked. What Google is doing by not protecting their users because of money is not good. This is a very common scam since a very long time ago, but Google has not done anything about it.

[Taskford]

Just want to warn the newbies and others to be more careful when using the Google search engine, as hackers are now using Google-sponsored ads to redirect crypto investors to phishing sites where their crypto holdings will be drained.

Google has bad history and reputation of such sponsored advertisements. When people search with Google to find something for example cryptocurrency wallets or cryptocurrency exchanges, it's not barely to see phishing sites or phishing fake applications appear at top and are recommended by Google.

It's more hilarious but very unacceptable because with most famous keywords like famous cryptocurrency exchanges or wallets, Google must know about these things and they certainly are able to proactively filter words to block all phishing sites and applications. They can do that quite easily and they just don't want to do that, just want to let phishing sites appears on top of search results.

Same with Meta (Facebook) recent months, many scam advertisements that direct people to phishing sites, but even users reported such things, Meta refused to remove such scam advertisements.

True it happens on those platform and it seems that both platforms are just prioritizing revenue and automation, this is why lots of scammers slips in and easily buy adds to market their fake sites.

What really bad is we have seen those fake or phising site at top of the search result. Even if there are people report it the action is so slow, because this platform usually rely on automation.

This is the reason why lots of phising sites or platform impersonation continue to exist, since they didn't do any fast action to remove it.

Scams and phising incident is growing and maybe they should do strict manual verification to avoid any possible scamming incident.

[BABY SHOES]

There have been so many of these ads that google has never filters. And that's why as part of the community we have to do it on our own so that they'll be the ones to notice it through reporting. They don't care about these ads as long as they get paid and that's why we have to report all of these phishing sites if we come across it through their reporting link.

Code:

https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/

Some people don't understand how to report phishing sites, some are careless because they rely too much on Google searches sometimes it's misleading too, other communities don't realize this and when it's new they tell all about it.

This guide is indeed very useful for reporting phishing sites, but Sponsored Ads on Google often can not be prevented, because my browser now uses AddBlocker ads that sometimes do not appear, but not as long as it is displayed.

If we draw on the history of a few years ago until now, the total losses due to phishing may have been a large amount if accumulated. Need to be thorough.

[Porfirii]

-snip-

This is the reason why lots of phising sites or platform impersonation continue to exist, since they didn't do any fast action to remove it.

Scams and phising incident is growing and maybe they should do strict manual verification to avoid any possible scamming incident.

The main reason, because many of these phishing sites couldn't survive long enough to deceive enough people to make the effort worthwhile, but the level of diffusion google ads achieve is the key component that they needed to reach a critical mass.

However, this is a problem that has been going on for many years, and it is a basic security practice to avoid those ads that appear in the first search results or, rather, before the real legitimate search results.

[Alpha Marine]

I believe this has reduced recently, or I guess it is just me.
Previously, their "ads" section was just fake sites. This made me not even consider that part of the search page whenever I search for something on Google. But with their AI and "sponsored", I think it has reduced. I don't see a lot of fake sites in that part of the search page. Or it could be because I have grown not to pay any attention to that section when searching for something.
I understand how Google is more about the money, but I can't entirely blame them for that. Scammers are also sophisticated. They find and exploit loopholes. Services won't protect us completly. We have to take resposibility for certain things.

[Dex_master25]

I believe this has reduced recently, or I guess it is just me.
Previously, their "ads" section was just fake sites. This made me not even consider that part of the search page whenever I search for something on Google. But with their AI and "sponsored", I think it has reduced. I don't see a lot of fake sites in that part of the search page. Or it could be because I have grown not to pay any attention to that section when searching for something.
I understand how Google is more about the money, but I can't entirely blame them for that. Scammers are also sophisticated. They find and exploit loopholes. Services won't protect us completly. We have to take resposibility for certain things.

I believe that the inclusion of AI is responsible for Google slacking in value and quality of service because these days when I try to use Google I always get an AI response first before I see any other answers that Google has and it's always mostly old.
So this makes me believe the Google ads are simply about money and not about quality of service because they should have been able to know that such ads they presented are nothing but phishing links and prevent it, but they don't care.

[Ronsbit]

There have been so many of these ads that google has never filters. And that's why as part of the community we have to do it on our own so that they'll be the ones to notice it through reporting. They don't care about these ads as long as they get paid and that's why we have to report all of these phishing sites if we come across it through their reporting link.

Code:

https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/

How I wish the whole internet user's are present here, they could have seen this link you have provided to help fight against scams and phishing links by reporting them to the website you have provided here. But it is just limited because only members of this platform could see it and take action by saving the link to report any website that seems suspicious.

I will personally share this link vial my social media handles so that my followers and contacts would see it and I will also tell them to help reshare it till it goes viral so that even newbies would also see it to be able to report any suspected website or link of that nature.

Google should step up their security measures in properly conducting a thorough verification exercise before allowing ads to run on their platform because majority of these ads are doing more harm than good as expected of them.

[Upgrade00]

Scammers didn't just start this. Search results have always been high risk.

I understand how Google is more about the money, but I can't entirely blame them for that. Scammers are also sophisticated. They find and exploit loopholes. Services won't protect us completly. We have to take resposibility for certain things.

There are other search engines that are not as vulnerable as Google. You can argue that google has the widest audience so they get more searches and websites looking to be indexed, but this means they also have the bigger budget to allocate to security of users. They should be able to properly vet the results they display on their first page.

[Ishicryptic]

There have been so many of these ads that google has never filters. And that's why as part of the community we have to do it on our own so that they'll be the ones to notice it through reporting. They don't care about these ads as long as they get paid and that's why we have to report all of these phishing sites if we come across it through their reporting link.

There are many people that are not on a forum like this and they do not know that they are scam ads until they have been scammed or their wallet has already been hacked. What Google is doing by not protecting their users because of money is not good. This is a very common scam since a very long time ago, but Google has not done anything about it.

This is a very sad development that keeps reocouring in Google sponsored adds and more people keeps being victims of scammers, if you're not fortunate to belong to a community that constantly shares information and updates about the schemes of scammers you wouldn't know that Google, that is supposed to be a reputable platform to link genuine sites doesn't do their due diligence. Google management cannot deny that they don't know that scammers are capitalizing on their weak services to scam unsuspecting victims, they choose to collect money and look the other way without a care that people are being misled and scammed simply because they trusted that anything from Google is safe. It is now left on us to do our own due diligence research before clicking any links on Google adds, if you're not very sure about any sites it is better to suspend your search until you're sure that you're not being misled

[ImGenius]

Just want to warn the newbies and others to be more careful when using the Google search engine, as hackers are now using Google-sponsored ads to redirect crypto investors to phishing sites where their crypto holdings will be drained. Approximately $1.27M was lost by Hyperliquid users for the month of March, and some Trezor wallet users have been victims of the phishing ad.

The hard reality is, if a original website does not advertise through Google sponsored ads they will show it lower in the search results while the websites that paid for sponsored ads even if they are fake and scam sites will still appear at the top. I think Google should take responsibility for the accidents that happen through this. Because if they did not suggest fake websites that user would definitely never click on them.

People trust Google a lot which is why many people consider the first result they find on Google to be correct and later they become victims of scams. Google should give much more importance to this issue.

[pawanjain]

snip
Just want to warn the newbies and others to be more careful when using the Google search engine, as hackers are now using Google-sponsored ads to redirect crypto investors to phishing sites where their crypto holdings will be drained. Approximately $1.27M was lost by Hyperliquid users for the month of March, and some Trezor wallet users have been victims of the phishing ad.
A fake Uniswap ad drained at least $400,000.

I never trust Google ads because I have myself seen some of those Google ads pointing out to suspicious sites.
For some reason, Google doesn't monitor such ads and publicly display it on their search engine.
Since those sites are placed on the top some users unknowingly click on those links and end up getting scammed.
We should always double check what links we are click on when using these search engines.

[MarryWithBTC]

snip
Just want to warn the newbies and others to be more careful when using the Google search engine, as hackers are now using Google-sponsored ads to redirect crypto investors to phishing sites where their crypto holdings will be drained. Approximately $1.27M was lost by Hyperliquid users for the month of March, and some Trezor wallet users have been victims of the phishing ad.
A fake Uniswap ad drained at least $400,000.

I never trust Google ads because I have myself seen some of those Google ads pointing out to suspicious sites.
For some reason, Google doesn't monitor such ads and publicly display it on their search engine.
Since those sites are placed on the top some users unknowingly click on those links and end up getting scammed.
We should always double check what links we are click on when using these search engines.

Google has a long history of not monitoring their ads and the funny thing is that the phishing sites always find their way to rank better than the legit ones. I don't know if scam experts found some ways to cheat the algorithm.

Apart from double checking the links, I'll recommend that people should try to visit discussion forums like this if they are to invest in what they do not really understand. Forums answer questions and provides a kind of feedback and review system.

[Abu-Naim]

There have been so many of these ads that google has never filters. And that's why as part of the community we have to do it on our own so that they'll be the ones to notice it through reporting. They don't care about these ads as long as they get paid and that's why we have to report all of these phishing sites if we come across it through their reporting link.

Code:

https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/

I can’t remember the last time I used google search engine to check for something because they usually direct me to their AI for fast help, I noticed they thought that AI can help better, so they usually add AI to their response in case you want easy response, because if all these, I don’t usually use their search engine anymore; now that I see adds with phishing links attached is not surprising, they might not know that this is happening, but need to know and take serious action by maybe verifying companies that come with adds I order to protect their reputation and prevent people from getting scammed.

Nevertheless, your suggestion to help them report these phishing websites is a good one, we can help ourselves by reporting them if we can to avoid wide spread because people are losing money to phishing attacks.

[puloweh555]

I never trust Google ads because I have myself seen some of those Google ads pointing out to suspicious sites.
For some reason, Google doesn't monitor such ads and publicly display it on their search engine.
Since those sites are placed on the top some users unknowingly click on those links and end up getting scammed.
We should always double check what links we are click on when using these search engines.

Google has a long history of not monitoring their ads and the funny thing is that the phishing sites always find their way to rank better than the legit ones. I don't know if scam experts found some ways to cheat the algorithm.

Apart from double checking the links, I'll recommend that people should try to visit discussion forums like this if they are to invest in what they do not really understand. Forums answer questions and provides a kind of feedback and review system.

The ad scam on Google is really dangerous because victims are made to trust it first through the ads, especially since they always appear at the top of the search engine results. When we click we are then directed to a phishing site that drains our assets. This thread really needs to appear whenever there’s a case because education and reminding each other is an important step so that more people don’t fall victim to phishing scams and it serves as a good reminder to always be careful.

From this case we can learn why we should never click on sponsored crypto links. Google ads like the one described by OP should be a reminder for us to be more careful, always bookmark the legitimate sites you use, and double check URLs before connecting your wallet because just one wrong click can have fatal consequences very quickly.

[sokani]

I'm not really surprised by the news. When it comes to the download of crypto wallets, exchange apps, or apps for hardware devices, search engines should be avoided at all costs. There is a high likelihood of downloading a fake app from a phishing website that could drain one's funds. It is advisable to always download crypto apps from the official websites.

[Mitchell]

Should be posted in the [General] Crypto scams, attacks and malware-topic. This makes it easier for newbies to find and keeps the section clean (since we don't have 20 different warning topics).

[...]
New scam / attack / malware topics in this section will be locked and possibly moved to Trashcan. Post them in this General instead.
[...]

I've posted a quote of your post there, feel free to make your own post (and I will remove mine).


Not the first time people I've paid Google to promote a scam, won't be the last (sadly).