Security News > 2022 > July > Convincing ‘YouTube’ Google ads lead to Windows support scams

Convincing ‘YouTube’ Google ads lead to Windows support scams
2022-07-20 18:43

A scarily realistic-looking Google Search YouTube advertisement is redirecting visitors to tech support scams pretending to be security alerts from Windows Defender.

Today, cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes disclosed that they discovered a "Major" malvertising campaign abusing Google ads.

When searching for "YouTube" related keywords, the first advertisement shown in search results is titled, 'YouTube - Best of YouTube Videos' or 'YouTube.com - YouTube - Best of YouTube videos for You.'.

Clicking on the advertisement would not bring you to YouTube but rather to a tech support scam pretending to be a security alert from Windows Defender.

For those using VPNs, the good news is that the scam sites will check if you are running a VPN and, if so, redirect users to the legitimate YouTube site.

We detected a major malvertising campaign abusing Google Ads.


News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/convincing-youtube-google-ads-lead-to-windows-support-scams/

Related vendor

VENDOR LAST 12M #/PRODUCTS LOW MEDIUM HIGH CRITICAL TOTAL VULNS
Google 102 256 4320 4678 741 9995