Security News > 2023 > November > Hundreds of websites cloned to run ads for Chinese football gambling outfits
Swedish digital rights organization Qurium has discovered around 250 cloned websites and suggested they exist to drive people to China-linked gambling sites.
Qurium's report explains that Filipino media outlet MindaNews found a clone of itself, translated into Chinese and laden with gambling ads.
The org alleges that some of the gambling ads found at 520xingyun.com website "Are connected to a physical address in the tax-haven Isle of Man where several gambling companies are registered."
Why bother to clone sites and register iffy domains to promote gambling sites? Because publishers are reticent to carry certain ads on their sites and big ad networks and adtech companies therefore allow blocking some topics.
Illegally cloned sites probably have few qualms about the third-party ads they serve, making them useful for operators of gambling sites as they seek to generate traffic.
It's unclear if these clones target folks in the People's Republic - where gambling is illegal and punters are strongly discouraged from using VPNs unless they're necessary for business reasons - or whether the sizable Chinese diaspora is the target.