Scammers are creating ads in Google search results that pretend to be customer support numbers for popular sites such as Amazon, PayPal, and eBay. When called, scammers will pretend to be from the associated company and state they need a code from a Google Play gift card before they can help.
BleepingComputer was alerted to these scam ads in the Google search results a few weeks ago from a security researcher who wishes to remain anonymous. Since then, we have observed multiple scam ad campaigns pretending to be tech support hotlines for well known companies.
Examples of these ads are shown below, where we see advertisements for Amazon and PayPal that contain contact numbers. In mobile browsers these ads look legitimate and could easily confuse a person into calling the listed number.
The problem is that these numbers are not the correct ones. While the ads listed Amazon's number as (888) 403-5771 and PayPal's numbers as (855) 281-0268 and (866) 966-3820, these are just numbers used by crooks to redirect victims to their own support scam operations.
The valid PayPal number is (888) 221-1161 and Amazon's number is (888) 280-4331.
Desktop ads are not as convincing
On the desktop version of the Google search results page, some of the ads are thankfully not as convincing.
Some that we have seen, like this one for eBay look pretty good.
For the most part, though, most of the desktop ads we have seen utilize symbols such as parenthesis, pipes, and unicode symbols to separate the different parts of the numbers.
The researcher told BleepingComputer that he feels that the symbols are being used to bypass Google's automated ad quality screening tools.
Need Google Play gift card codes to fix problems
If a person call these fake support numbers for a problem, victims will be greeted with a person who states that they work for the associated company. In our test, we called a number being shown for PayPal and the call was answered by someone stating "Thank you for calling PayPal support".
They then proceeded to tell me that my account had problems that could only be fixed if we sent them a code on the back of a Google Play Card. When questioned as to why we need to pay money to fix an issue, they said PayPal would reimburse me for the cost of the card.
If you like to a hear a recording of a call to these scammers, you can listen below.
BleepingComputer had contacted Google about these ads and were provided the following statement.
“We have strict policies that govern the kinds of ads we allow on our platform, and ads that conceal or misstate information about their business are prohibited on our platform," Google told BleepingComputer via email. "When we find ads that violate our policies, we remove them.”
While Google would not provide any information about the advertiser, from our tests this particular campaign appears to have been removed for now. Unfortunately, these ads do not stay gone for long and we expect to see new campaigns appear soon.
If you run into any scam ads in Google search results, you should report them using Google's ad flagging tool.
Post a Comment Community Rules
You need to login in order to post a comment
Not a member yet? Register Now