Need an answer to a question or a solution to a problem? Your first instinct is probably to go to Google. A quick search and you have what you need. But can you always trust your Google search results? Sadly, Google search results scams are on the rise, so we have to be more careful than ever when choosing what to click.
What Does a Google Search Phishing Scam Look Like?
Recently, a user shared on Reddit how they were searching for a skin care product and found what they were looking for in a sponsored result provided by Google. They clicked through to the website, which looked legitimate – in fact, pretty much identical to the real site, and with a logical URL. They filled their basket with items from the site-wide sale, but at checkout, their credit card was rejected. This was a red flag, as there was no reason that should have happened.
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They went back and investigated, discovering that they had clicked on a duplicate scam website, with a .us URL rather than the original .com. Their account was later flagged for fraud when the scammers tried to contact their bank with information that had been gathered through their scam site.
How Google Search Results Scams Work
This user’s experience exemplifies how these scams work. Duplicate websites that look just like the real thing are created and show up high in search results through paid advertising. Once there, they offer deals that encourage you to put things in your account and head to checkout.
This is where you are prompted to put in sensitive information, like your credit card details. Your card might be rejected, or your order might be accepted and never fulfilled, but they nonetheless take the sensitive information you provide to try and drain your accounts.
Scams don’t have to involve a purchase. You might be prompted to download something, like a manual or free guide, which also downloads malware onto your device.
How to Avoid Google Search Results Scams?
Google itself is in an ongoing battle to prevent this kind of scam advertising, but with limited success. Therefore, it is down to consumers to be careful what they click on. There are a few red flags that can help you identify scam sites.
- If the link is sponsored, that means that it is paid advertising. While legitimate businesses do use paid advertising, this is also pretty much the only strategy that scammers have to get you to click on their site.
- Suspicious URLs with misspellings or that are unnecessarily complicated are a big giveaway. Legitimate companies try to keep their URLs clean and concise, while scammers need to make changes to find an available URL. Unusual website domains, such as .us and .biz, can also be red flags, as they are purchased as alternatives to the .com or .org URLs that the legitimate business owns.
- Sensational language and offers designed to get you to act now, before you have the chance to think and consider, are often featured. If a deal is too good to be true and expires in the next 30 minutes, then it is probably not legitimate.
- Website designs do their best to mimic the legitimate sites they are copying, but there will often be inconsistencies in the “official” logo and fonts used that are not quite right. These are easy to spot if you just spend a few minutes looking.
By using common sense to spot these red flags, you can still use Google to find what you are looking for, without getting caught by scams.
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When my sweet old grandmother got caught up in an Amazon gift card scam, I decided then and there that I needed to do whatever I could to inform as many people as possible about the grifters of the world. That’s what I do here – writing about modern scams so you don’t get caught out.
you missed a way to start being suspicious.
if it begins with these things, chances are that the rest is a scam.
HELLO
DEAR SIR/MME (this one, i may scan the email quickly)
these, i hit JUNK immediately
DEAR (EMAIL ADDRESS)
DEAR CUSTOMER
DEAR MEMBER
thanks,
steve
GREAT!!!!!Thanks!!!!
It’s definitely something more people need to be aware of. Google isn’t showing the most accurate or helpful results anymore it’s showing what benefits its business model. Sponsored results often dominate the top of the page, and sometimes even the “organic” results are just SEO-optimized content farms with little substance. It’s also concerning how misinformation or outdated info can still rank highly. Cross-checking sources and not blindly trusting the first link is more important than ever.