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