Innovative Cryptocurrency Scammers Leveraging Google Search Ads

Scammers involved in cryptocurrency scams are moving beyond social networking platforms and making inroads into Google's search engine. These fraudsters are exploiting people's interaction with Google's advertisements, using the popular search engine to perpetrate their scams. One individual recently lost nearly a million dollars ($900,000 or Rs 7.4 crore) in an ad phishing scam identified by web3 tracker, Scam Sniffer. This incident was a wake-up call, and further investigation unveiled other shocking findings.

A cyber researcher, known as @0xngmi on X, who is associated with the Web3 company DeFiLlama, has issued a warning about such scams occurring via legitimate Google websites. Here, the fraudsters buy ads for genuine websites on Google. But when users click the links, they are redirected to 'kochava.com,' an advertising network, which subsequently sends these users to bogus scam sites.

0xngmi provided a screenshot on X illustrating how fraudsters impersonated the DeFiLlama website. The fraudulent site was revealed by a ‘Sponsored' tag above the website. The company reported the issue to Google repeatedly, accusing them of failing to take any action. However, Google has yet to respond to these allegations.

@0xngmi has advocated for other crypto community members to install ad-blockers as a precautionary measure to avoid suspicious ads.