Google warns that AI and obfuscation are used in ongoing scams
It goes without saying that scams, fraudulent cyberattacks, whatever you want to call them, have increased in volume over the past few months. If so, that’s precisely what Google’s vice president for trust and safety, charged with leading the global team protecting users from such abuse, did in a Nov. 14 post on Google’s safety and security news pages. Two of the reasons behind this increase are landing page hiding techniques and, inevitably, AI. Here’s what Google wants you to be especially aware of.
Google highlights 5 scam trends to worry about
With Black Friday just around the corner, and that means Black Friday scams are already happeningthe spotlight has turned to scams and scammers for much of the media. The truth is, of course, that scams are a year-round problem that you don’t need to be aware of for two or three holidays in the year. Laurie Richardson, Google’s Vice President of Trust and Safety, knows this all too well, given that she is responsible for protecting Google users from scams 365 days a year. Leading a global team developing policy and technology solutions to the problem, when Richardson speaks, you would be well advised to listen, especially since the scammers themselves are constantly evolving their tactics as they seek to make the most of their nefarious plans.
The scams are “often perpetrated by transnational criminal organizations: bad actors who operate on a large scale, constantly adapt their methods and combine online and offline activities to lure people into their fraudulent schemes,” Richardson said. That’s why, to help raise awareness by sharing the latest tactics used by scammers and criminals, Google is launching a ‘regular online fraud and scam advisory’.
#1 Google Online Scam Review
To get the ball rolling, Google released #1 Online Scam Reviewswhich discusses five recent trends worth noting. As well as the warning regarding crypto investment programsapplication cloning and major event exploitation, the other two are the ones that caught my attention and that of others in the security industry: AI identity theft campaigns and hiding the landing page.
Identity theft scams are not new, but they are becoming more sophisticated with the addition of AI in their creation. “These impersonations often promote fraudulent offers ranging from high-yield investments to fake freebies and harmful apps,” Richardson said, adding that they are increasingly complex, “mixing impersonation traditional identity and investment fraud, while attempting to leverage multiple products within a single campaign. Google recently updated its misrepresentation policy in direct response to such scams in Google Ads. Richardson also advised users to “watch out for unnatural expressions in the content you see or strange promos from public figures,” as deepfakes “often struggle to make faces look completely natural, which can be a first indicator of synthetic content”.
Google warns as landing page hiding tactics emerge
“Scammers use deceptive tactics like masking to present content to Google that is different from what a user sees,” Richardson said in Google’s new scam advisory, adding that “masking is specifically designed to prevent systems and moderation teams to review policy-violating content, allowing them to deploy the scam directly to users.
Google also analyzed a cloaking trend that redirects users via ad tracking patterns to a scareware site, for example. Once again, Google has policies that prohibit the use of landing page cloakingbut scammers are not known for following the rules, it should be noted. Google’s official advice is to take note of the URL displayed before clicking and double-check the page you are on. Enabling enhanced protection in Google Chrome is also recommended.
“We should expect Google to protect its ranking algorithms from outside manipulation such as obfuscation,” said Dr. Martin Kraemer, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, “however, even as Google increased the robustness of its algorithms, we must understand that cybercrime syndicates are managed as professional companies that enter into constant struggle with the defenders of the organizations. That said, the use of these scam notices must be welcomed by Google because. it represents an additional level of user education that is essential in the fight against fraudsters.