Beware of Google Alert Links Leading to Malware and Scams

guest · Sep 23, 2019

Beware of Google Alert Links Leading to Malware and Scams
September 23, 2019
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...gle-alert-links-leading-to-malware-and-scams/

Google Alerts is s useful service that allows you to receive emails or an updated RSS feed when new pages appear in the Google search index that are related to specified keywords you are following. Unfortunately, whenever there is a good thing, people try to take advantage of them to push users towards scams and malware.

For example, as we publish a lot of ransomware news, I have a Google Alert setup for Ransomware. Knowing that users are desperate for decryptors, the bad actors create fake spam pages containing blobs of text containing keywords related to a particular decryptor that may be affecting a lot of users at the time.

When a user clicks on a link through a Google Alert or via the Google search engine, instead of showing the web page shown earlier in the article, they will be redirected to a malicious site like the tech support scam shown below.
BleepingComputer has also seen this same technique being used for other subjects such as televisions, clothes, movies, and more.
In the example above, all of the highlighted results are scam redirects.
Click to expand...

guest · Jun 16, 2020

Google Alerts catches fake data breach notes pushing malware
June 16, 2020
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...tches-fake-data-breach-notes-pushing-malware/

Fraudsters recently have started to push fake data breach notifications for big company names to distribute malware and scams. They’re mixing black SEO, Google Sites, and spam pages to direct users to dangerous locations.

Google Alerts helps to spread these fake notifications as the service monitors search results for user-defined keywords. Scammers created pages or used compromised websites to combine “data breach” with well-known brands.
Fake security incidents
BleepingComputer has seen fake breach notifications for companies like Chegg, EA, Canva, Dropbox, Hulu, Ceridian, Shein, PayPal, Target, Hautelook, Mojang, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Houzz. These companies have suffered a data breach at one point in the past.
To make it harder to detect their malicious behavior, navigating to the pages directly may not reveal the true nature of the campaign.
Click to expand...

Google Alerts links redirect to malware
If you use a Google Alerts or search engine link to arrive at one of these fake data breach sites, the experience is very different compared to going there directly.
On most occasions, we found that the fraudsters pushed unwanted search-related extensions.

Fake Adobe Flash update notifications were also very common, asking users to install the latest version of the player if they wanted to access the content promised before the redirect.
Click to expand...

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Beware of Google Alert Links Leading to Malware and Scams

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