Hackers trick Google Alerts into sending malware-ridden links to users – IGNORE these dangerous messages
SCAMMERS are using Google Alerts to send out links to malware.
The cybercriminals are doing their best to impersonate big name companies to try and fool people into a false sense of security.
According to a report, Google Alerts is accidentally helping to spread these malicious notifcations.
The Google Alerts service is supposed to monitor search results for specific keywords set by a user.
This can be useful for people who are job hunting and want a notification when something suitable appears online.
To take advantage of this, hackers have created fake websites or compromised certain pages to combine the phrase 'data breach' with well known brands.
Fake breach notifications have reportedly been sent out about many companies including Hulu, PayPal, Target, EA and more.
If unsuspecting Google Alerts users click on the links they may end up at pages pretending to offer deals or downloads.
You should not download anything from suspicious links as it could be malware.
People may also be led to a “page not found” error or a page about a fake data breach as the hackers try and make their scam look legitimate.
BleepingComputer also found a webpage containing 2,000 text files which contained keywords to promote a topic on Google Search.
This can make the scammer's pages rank higher so you're more likely to click on them.
A fake Adobe Flash update was also found to be spreading malware.
Google and Firefox were both said to have these fake results pop up.
To protect yourself from these scams make sure to remain alert about the links you click in search results and remember if something seems too good to be true then it probably is.
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In other news, Facebook will let users turn off political adverts.
Google has deleted over 30 popular apps from the Play Store.
And, a tech blogger has revealed the possible design for next year's iPhone 12.
Have you had any malware problems recently? Let us know in the comments...
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