Cybercriminals use search engine ads to spoof bank websites

Cybercriminals are using fraudulent advertising keywords on search engines like Google to direct users to fake banking and institutional websites. By purchasing popular brand names as keywords, scammers ensure their malicious links appear as top search results, mimicking the professional look, logos, and colors of legitimate entities to steal login credentials.

Mindaugas Kutkaitis, head of fraud prevention at Luminor bank, warns that these sites are increasingly difficult to distinguish from the real ones. He advises users to scrutinize web addresses for unusual symbols or extra characters, such as ‘bank-login-secure123.com’.

Data from the National Cyber Security Centre indicates that DNS blocking systems averaged approximately 59,000 successful attempts per day this February to prevent users from reaching malicious sites. Experts recommend that users should never automatically approve mobile authentication requests unless they have personally initiated a transaction, and should always verify that they are on the correct, official domain.