Yet Again, Google Tricked Into Serving Scam Amazon Ads (zdnet.com) 49
Zack Whittaker, reporting for ZDNet: For hours on Thursday, the top Google search result for "Amazon" was pointed to a scam site. The bad ad appeared at the very top of the search result for anyone searching for the internet retail giant -- even above the legitimate search result for Amazon.com. Anyone who clicked on the ad was sent to a page that tried to trick the user into calling a number for fear that their computer was infected with malware -- and not sent to Amazon.com as they would have hoped.
The page presents itself as an official Apple or Windows support page, depending on the type of computer you're visiting the page from. An analysis of the webpage's code showed that anyone trying to dismiss the popup box on the page would likely trigger the browser expanding to full-screen, giving the appearance of ransomware. A one-off event would be forgivable. But this isn't the first time this has happened. It's at least the second time in two years that Google has served up a malicious ad under Amazon's name.
The page presents itself as an official Apple or Windows support page, depending on the type of computer you're visiting the page from. An analysis of the webpage's code showed that anyone trying to dismiss the popup box on the page would likely trigger the browser expanding to full-screen, giving the appearance of ransomware. A one-off event would be forgivable. But this isn't the first time this has happened. It's at least the second time in two years that Google has served up a malicious ad under Amazon's name.
Amazon got Amazoned. (Score:1)
If it loses them a few customers ... fine with me. The company responsible for destroying businesses that actually pay workers decently and don't abuse their warehouse workers -- I'm not going to shed a tear for them.
Bad karma yields bad results.
Re: Amazon got Amazoned. (Score:1)
Who searces for amazon? Everybody knows it is amazon.com. No need to go the long way via google.
Re: (Score:3)
I've seen people run a search for "google". Clicking a fake Amazon instead of typing a-m-a-z-o-n-Ctrl+Enter doesn't surprise me.
Re: (Score:2)
It just never occurs to me to hit ctrl+enter after typing in some common site names. I fairly often type 'youtube' and wind up accidentally searching for youtube rather than just going there.
Re: (Score:2)
Obligatory comic/animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: Trumpists tricked into voting for TREASON (Score:1)
There will always be gullible voters and morons, God loves them and made many of them.
My problem is with the Supreme Court. Much of what we see going on now is because the Kangaroos decided that Corporations are people and that spending millions on elections is free speech. If I were going to collect scalps, I'd start with Thomas. I would personally behead him.
All ads are scams (Score:1)
Advertising is by its very nature an intent to deceive for profit.
These are just more blatant than most.
Scam Ad Attack (Score:2)
Just recently other sites I visit seemed to have a flood of full-screen popover ads, where I would see the main site for a few seconds while it loaded and then, BAM as the entire screen was filled with a warning about needing a virus scanner.
It seems like there's some kind of wave attack going on...
The pairing of articles here on /. is pretty funny (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Modern Monoculture Web ... (Score:4, Interesting)
... gets modern monoculture problems.
No news here.
Curiously enough, this is only due to both Google and Amazon being the only big players in their respective fields.
Ad blocking (Score:1)
Tricked? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That would be a prime (forgive the pun) example of "cutting off your nose to spite your face." This is bad for both companies. Google wants people to be able to trust their ads' safety, and Amazon doesn't want customers to fear clicking on links to their site.
No need to invent conspiracy theories when a mundane explanation makes far more sense.
Re: (Score:2)
Google isn't the one being tricked here (Score:1)
Google makes money from adverts whether the advert is just an advert or is spam, or malware. It really doesn't make any difference to google. I'd say that *you* are the one getting tricked if you believe what google says.
Re: (Score:2)
Except that this might expose Google to legal liability, as the platform on which fraudulent ads were served. IANAL, but I can't imagine a world where the advertise carrier (newspaper or Google) is completely innocent of whatever wrong was committed through the advertisement.
An Ad? (Score:3)
Search for Amazon ??? (Score:1)
Still happening (Score:2)
same at Bing (Score:2)
This is why I block adverts. (Score:1)
I couldn't care less about page intrusions, content that's difficult to read, nonsense that I don't want to buy, or even scams in adverts. Those things have never been an issue for me as they're ignoble. I don't enjoy the privacy intrusions at all, that's some scary stuff, but that's not the biggest issue for me personally. The biggest problem with advertising on websites is the possibility of being served malicious adverts. I've got a lot of code on my machines and I've got a lot of NDA's for clients. I'm