Check Point: Scammers Stole $ 500,000 in Cryptocurrency Using Google Ads Russians. Specialists of Check Point Software Technologies warned about a new method of fraud, the results of their research are at the disposal of Lenta.ru. Experts also noted that with the help of this scheme, the criminals have already managed to steal about 500 thousand dollars.
Analysts point out that scammers first place ads using the Google Ads tool. It allows you to customize the display of promoted messages in such a way that they are the first in the search results for search queries related to cryptocurrency wallets. Most often we are talking about the popular services Phantom and MetaMask.
Following the link from Google, the victim is taken to a phishing site that looks almost the same as the original resource of the crypto site. There the user is required to have a password for the account. If a user enters it, his personal data ends up in the hands of fraudsters.
“According to our estimates, in the last weekend of October alone, attackers stole more than $ 500,000 worth of cryptocurrency,” says Oded Vanunu, Head of Vulnerability Research products at Check Point Software. – This is a new trend among cyber fraudsters. Traditional phishing by e-mail may fade into the background: cybercriminals will mainly use advertising on Google. ” In addition, Russians were advised, when working with search engines, to pay attention to the first result in the search results, and not to the block with advertisements.
Earlier, users began to complain about the dominance of advertising in Telegram. As Roskachestvo warned, such ads can be dangerous: often, under the guise of native ads, a popular messenger promotes “info-gypsy”.