Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao noted that Google search results promote phishing sites targeted at cryptocurrency users.
Google displays phishing sites when users search CMC. This affects users adding smart contract addresses to MetaMask using these phishing sites. We are trying to contact Google for this, and in the meantime alerting users about this through social channels. pic.twitter.com/3q4860Jl4H
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 27, 2022
Zhao posted a screenshot showing that when searching for ‘coinmarketcap’ in the top results, fraudulent sites labeled ‘Advertisement’ appear.
“This affects users who add smart contract addresses to MetaMask via such phishing sites. We are trying to contact Google about this, and in the meantime warning users through social channels,” he wrote.
One of the scammers’ sites has an URL similar to the original, and the data of the second contains nothing resembling CoinMarketCap (CMC).
The service is among the most popular data aggregators for the cryptocurrency market. Binance acquired CMC in 2020.
Earlier in November 2021, scammers used Google advertising to promote fake MetaMask and Phantom wallet sites. Losses to users exceeded $500,000.
In April 2022, amid the hype around Terra, scammers conducted a phishing attack through advertising promoting fake Anchor or Astroport sites. To the attackers’ address crypto assets worth $4.31 million were received, according to SlowMist.
In October, researcher going by the nickname ZachXBT noted that the phishing-scammers Monkey Drainer, formed several months earlier, stole roughly about $1 million of digital assets in a day.
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