Scammers hijack websites of popular brands to insert fake phone number


Cybercriminals frequently use fake search engine listings to take advantage of our trust in popular brands, and then scam us. It often starts, as with so many attacks, with a sponsored search result on Google.

In the latest example of this type of scam, we found tech support scammers hijacking the results of people looking for 24/7 support for Apple, Bank of America, Facebook, HP, Microsoft, Netflix, and PayPal. Here’s how it works: Cybercriminals pay for a sponsored ad on Google pretending to be a major brand. Often, this ad leads people to a fake website. However, in the cases we recently found, the visitor is taken to the legitimate site with a small difference.

Read more…
Source: Malwarebytes Labz


Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.


Related:

  • Cybercriminals Gamble With Victims’ Livelihoods To Pass the Covid-19 Blues

    October 12, 2020

    In the Trend Micro 2020 midyear security report, we discussed how the Covid-19 global pandemic affected the cybersecurity industry. However, the pandemic didn’t just change the way businesses (and subsequently, their employees) operate; the nature of certain criminal activities have also changed in this time of isolation. Interestingly, some of this involves what we might call ...

  • Court orders seizure of ransomware botnet controls as U.S. election nears

    October 12, 2020

    Microsoft said Monday it had used a court order to take control of computers that were installing ransomware and other malicious software on local government networks and threatening to disrupt the November election. The maker of the Windows operating system said it seized a series of internet protocol addresses hosted by U.S. companies that had been ...

  • The most common malicious email attachments infecting Windows

    October 11, 2020

    To stay safe online, everyone needs to recognize malicious attachments that are commonly used in phishing emails to distribute malware. When distributing malware, threat actors create spam campaigns that pretend to be invoices, invites, payment information, shipping information, eFaxes, voicemails, and more. Included in these emails are malicious Word and Excel attachments, or links to them, ...

  • ZeroLogon: Ransomware gang now using critical Windows flaw in attacks

    October 9, 2020

    Microsoft is warning that cybercriminals have started to incorporate exploit code for the ZeroLogon vulnerability in their attacks. The alert comes after the company noticed ongoing attacks from cyber-espionage group MuddyWater (SeedWorm) in the second half of September. This time, the threat actor is TA505, an adversary who is indiscriminate about the victims it attacks, with ...

  • Massachusetts school district shut down by ransomware attack

    October 8, 2020

    The Springfield Public Schools district in Massachusetts has become the victim of a ransomware attack that has caused the closure of schools while they investigate the cyberattack. Springfield is the third largest school district in Massachusetts with over 25,000 students, 4,500 employees, and more than sixty schools. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school district opened ...

  • HEH P2P Botnet Sports Dangerous Wiper Function

    October 8, 2020

    A freshly discovered botnet dubbed HEH by researchers is casting a wide net, looking to infect any and all devices that use Telnet on ports 23/2323. It’s particularly destructive: It contains code that wipes all data from infected systems. Perhaps ironically, its operators also have a penchant for civil advocacy – a loading of the Universal ...