This campaign using the advertising system of the famous search engine was detected on July 20.
Very convincing, the ads displayed even displayed the correct URL of a well-known site.
From YouTube to a Windows Defender alert
When someone typed a query related to YouTube into Google’s search engine, the first ad displayed in the search results was a perfectly usual-looking ad, suggesting that it was indeed YouTube. a link to the video platform.
But this advertising campaign was actually a scam, revealed by the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes. The announcement indeed led to a page pretending to be a Windows Defender alert which invited the Internet user to call technical support via a number provided. This number referred him to a call center abroad to put him in contact with a bogus technician.
Common on the internet, this type of scam invites the victim to download software to take control of their computer. The scammer pretends that the device is infected with a virus or suffers from problems that can be fixed for a fee. The sums spent by the victim may turn out to be significant for problems that do not exist.
Not a first
Ad scams have been rampant on Google for several years. In 2019, keywords such as “Lowes” or “PayPal” were used. Again, convincing advertisements led to a fake Microsoft technical service.
Note that some VPN users have reported being redirected to the “real” site after clicking on these scam ads, instead of the scam page. An idea to develop with security suite publishers?
Source : Bleepingcomputer.
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