How Scammers Are Using Google Ads To Get You To Fall For Their Scams
One thing that I always cover when I speak to community groups about avoiding scams is to not trust the results that search engines provide. Simply put, scammers can use a variety of techniques to put themselves ahead of legitimate phones numbers and websites on Google. That in turn makes it far more likely that someone will engage with that ad and fall for a scam because they are leveraging the fact that humans tend to click on the first or second search result when they look for something.
Here’s an example of that that I found on Reddit yesterday:
Now I wasn’t able to replicate this search result with implies that the ad might have been taken down. You’ll note that I said ad in the previous sentence as this is an advertisement that is designed to pop up when certain keywords are used. In this case, “Bell Internet Customer Service”. This isn’t a new technique that scammers use to prey on the unsuspecting. But it is the first time I have seen it in association with a Canadian telco like Bell. Now you’re likely wondering how I know that this is an ad. For starters it says “sponsored” right above the words “5G mobile”. And if you see that word, that isn’t a search result that you can rely upon. Ever.
So what happens when you go to 5gmobilebell.ca? You go to this website:
In terms of look and feel, this isn’t even in the same star system as Bell’s website. So while it is possible that someone might get fooled and fall for this, I would imagine that their success rate would be pretty low. That’s further reinforced by this:
Clearly these losers used a template to build this website and couldn’t even fill out even the most basic details of the template. But again, that likely won’t stop someone from falling for it and calling the number.
As for calling the number to find out what the scam is, I tried calling but didn’t get an answer. But a few minutes later I got a call back from a US number which was clearly spoofed as Bell which is a Canadian telco would never call you from a US number. I couldn’t be bothered to answer the call as the effort level that was put in by these scammers is pathetically low. So I turned this information over to the scambait community to see if they can have some fun with these losers. Having said that, this could easily have been far more dangerous because they started this scam with the technique of buying ads to ensure that their scam pops up at the top of Google’s search results which is known for being successful at separating people from their money. That means that you need to be aware of this so that you don’t end up being one of those people who are separated from their money by a scammer.
This entry was posted on October 21, 2024 at 9:25 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Scam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
How Scammers Are Using Google Ads To Get You To Fall For Their Scams
One thing that I always cover when I speak to community groups about avoiding scams is to not trust the results that search engines provide. Simply put, scammers can use a variety of techniques to put themselves ahead of legitimate phones numbers and websites on Google. That in turn makes it far more likely that someone will engage with that ad and fall for a scam because they are leveraging the fact that humans tend to click on the first or second search result when they look for something.
Here’s an example of that that I found on Reddit yesterday:
Now I wasn’t able to replicate this search result with implies that the ad might have been taken down. You’ll note that I said ad in the previous sentence as this is an advertisement that is designed to pop up when certain keywords are used. In this case, “Bell Internet Customer Service”. This isn’t a new technique that scammers use to prey on the unsuspecting. But it is the first time I have seen it in association with a Canadian telco like Bell. Now you’re likely wondering how I know that this is an ad. For starters it says “sponsored” right above the words “5G mobile”. And if you see that word, that isn’t a search result that you can rely upon. Ever.
So what happens when you go to 5gmobilebell.ca? You go to this website:
In terms of look and feel, this isn’t even in the same star system as Bell’s website. So while it is possible that someone might get fooled and fall for this, I would imagine that their success rate would be pretty low. That’s further reinforced by this:
Clearly these losers used a template to build this website and couldn’t even fill out even the most basic details of the template. But again, that likely won’t stop someone from falling for it and calling the number.
As for calling the number to find out what the scam is, I tried calling but didn’t get an answer. But a few minutes later I got a call back from a US number which was clearly spoofed as Bell which is a Canadian telco would never call you from a US number. I couldn’t be bothered to answer the call as the effort level that was put in by these scammers is pathetically low. So I turned this information over to the scambait community to see if they can have some fun with these losers. Having said that, this could easily have been far more dangerous because they started this scam with the technique of buying ads to ensure that their scam pops up at the top of Google’s search results which is known for being successful at separating people from their money. That means that you need to be aware of this so that you don’t end up being one of those people who are separated from their money by a scammer.
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This entry was posted on October 21, 2024 at 9:25 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Scam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.