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Binance’s CEO Says: Google Is Still Endorsing Phishing Sites That Steal Cryptocurrency
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of Binance, has issued a warning that Google search results are still favoring cryptocurrency phishing and fraud websites.
Despite these policies, for the past few years, scammers have managed to circumvent Google’s severe limits on crypto marketing for its ad program. Scam websites have been listed above reputable crypto and blockchain firms on occasion.
In a tweet on October 27, CZ cautioned users to be cautious of phishing websites that appear before legitimate websites while searching for CoinMarketCap on Google.
“This affects users adding smart contract addresses to MetaMask using these phishing sites. We are trying to contact Google for this, and in the meantime alerting users about this through social channels,” he said.
Google displays phishing sites when users search CMC. This affects users adding smart contract addresses to MetaMask using these phishing sites. We are trying to contact Google for this, and in the meantime alerting users about this through social channels. pic.twitter.com/3q4860Jl4H
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 27, 2022
Binance Purchased CoinMarketCap for an Undisclosed Value
One of the most popular cryptocurrency data aggregators, CoinMarketCap, was purchased by Binance in April 2020 for an unknown sum. Due to its widespread use, much traffic may be sent to this fraudulent advertising.
Phishing websites occasionally employ imitation URLs to deceive individuals, making them difficult to notice. For instance, one of the websites CZ singled out had the spelling “coinomarketcaap.”
The blockchain security company SlowMist discovered a Terra (LUNC)-related phishing scheme in April of this year. Criminals were operating fake websites that were using Google Ads to use the Achor Protocol and Astroport branding.
LUNC Worth $4.31 Million was Stolen
On April 12 and April 21, about $4.31 million worth of LUNC was stolen from 52 addresses by the promoted websites, which, according to SlowMist, outranked the sites that users were browsing for in search engine results.
The research division of cybersecurity company CheckPoint also released a report in November 2021 cautioning that over $500,000 had been taken by con artists who promoted phishing websites using Google Ads that looked like MetaMask and Phantom, two crypto wallet providers.
This week, Google’s advertisements business has attracted a lot of attention as parent company Alphabet noted in its Q3 results call that expenditure on search advertising from financial and cryptocurrency organizations was down quarter over quarter.
“We did see a pullback in spending by some advertisers in certain areas in search ads. For example, in financial services, we saw a pullback in insurance, loan, mortgage, and crypto subcategories,” said Philipp Schindler, chief business officer of Google.
However, the company seems to have no issues taking ad payments from con artists.
