Watch Out For These Traps Lurking In Search Results

Digital Security

Here’s really to debar being deed by fraudulent websites that scammers tin catapult straight to nan apical of your hunt results

10 Apr 2025  •  , 4 min. read

When was nan past clip you searched for thing utilizing Google Search, Bing aliases different gateway to nan endless expanse of nan internet? What a silly question, right? It whitethorn person been conscionable moments agone and possibly it’s moreover really you landed connected this blogpost. 

Others searching online, however, whitethorn brushwood little favorable outcomes. How so? Our wont of blindly trusting and clicking connected apical hunt results has go truthful predictable that it tin beryllium subverted and turned against us. 

Rigging nan game

Cautionary examples aren’t difficult to travel by, and I callback 1 that is excessively quirky not to mention: immoderate Australians who precocious searched for thing arsenic innocuous arsenic nan legality of Bengal cats successful nan country didn’t person straightforward accusation connected pet regulations; instead, they unwittingly ran nan consequence of having their information stolen pursuing a concatenation of events that started pinch a click connected a apical hunt motor result.

But moreover if you’re not a feline fancier, you should cognize that moreover a elemental hunt query whitethorn breed trouble. Some cybercriminals person for years been utilizing techniques that tin push malicious websites dressed up to look legit into nan apical of people’s hunt results, typically leveraging either SEO poisoning (also known arsenic achromatic chapeau SEO) or, moreover much commonly, malicious hunt ads.

One blase illustration of 'SEO fraud arsenic a service' was exposed by ESET researchers successful 2021 aft they found a antecedently undocumented server-side trojan that manipulated hunt motor results by hijacking nan estimation of nan websites it compromises. Similar campaigns were spotted again conscionable weeks ago.

In different example, ESET researchers identified a campaign that deployed ads successful Google hunt results starring victims to phony websites that looked identical to those of celebrated software, specified arsenic Firefox, WhatsApp, aliases Telegram. The extremity end was to summation complete power of nan compromised devices.

The risks aren’t lost connected Google, of course. According to its latest Ads Safety Report, successful 2023 nan institution "blocked aliases removed complete 5.5 cardinal ads, somewhat up from nan anterior year, and suspended 12.7 cardinal advertiser accounts, astir double from nan erstwhile year."

Some threats still gaffe through, however. Which is why it pays to cognize astir nan risks progressive successful some integrated and paid hunt results, and really to abstracted nan wheat from nan chaff. 

Hidden successful plain sight 

The caller meteoric emergence of AI tools, for one, has created caller hunting grounds for scammers, sparking schemes wherever fraudsters bought ads for counterfeit ChatGPT sites that redirected group to websites harvesting in installments paper details. The tract beneath displayed logos of existent OpenAI partners, perchance duping moreover galore tech-savvy victims. Much nan aforesaid point happened pinch different AI tools, including astir precocious when DeepSeek burst onto nan scene.

ESET researchers successful Latin America recently spotted a blase run that impersonated nan La Veloz del Norte autobus institution campaigns and targeted Argentinians who hunt for long-distance autobus tickets. Travelers who entered their accusation connected nan imposter tract unwittingly handed complete some login credentials and banking specifications to cybercriminals.

Financial services correspond peculiarly high-value targets. In 2022, ESET researchers successful Latin America alerted group to scams impersonating Mastercard done ads.

Staying safe 

Most of all, retrieve that prominence successful hunt results doesn’t automatically equate to legitimacy. Also, chances are precocious that galore people don’t ever separate betwixt integrated results and ads, and criminals return advantage of this particularly done malvertising campaigns aimed astatine group who, for example, search for software.

In immoderate cases, fraudsters whitethorn registry a typosquatting aliases similar-looking top-level domain to that of nan package patient successful bid to dupe nan victim, arsenic was nan lawsuit here pinch telegraem[.]org. Which is why you should debar blindly clicking connected immoderate appears astatine nan apical of your hunt page. Instead, analyse nan URLs meticulously and look retired for immoderate signs that thing is amiss. Apply nan aforesaid level of scrutiny if you’re utilizing Google’s AI hunt features, arsenic scammers are perpetually evolving their methods and find caller ways of promoting websites that push scams and malware.

Protect your integer accounts pinch strong and unsocial passwords aliases passphrases, arsenic good arsenic pinch two-factor authentication. Use reputable information package that tin place and artifact connections to malicious domains, frankincense providing an further furniture of protection against deceptive hunt results.

Also, Google itself offers devices to inspect nan results, specified arsenic accessing specifications by clicking nan 3 dots adjacent to sponsored listings, which tin expose discrepancies betwixt claims and nan existent identity. If you fishy that you've encountered a dodgy website, you tin report it to Google.

Conclusion 

We’ve each done it a cardinal times: typed a query, scanned results, clicked connected 1 of them, ‘got our fill’, and moved on. And though classical hunt engines progressively compete pinch nan likes of ChatGPT and AI-generated hunt summaries, nan classical search-and-click regular is improbable to spell anyplace immoderate clip soon. Old habits dice hard, and nan risks aren’t going anywhere, either. Search carefully.