CZ Reveals Google Displays Phishing Links When Users Search for CoinMarketCap

Google Displays Phishing Links When Users Search for CoinMarketCap, Binance’s CZ Reveals.

Binance’s Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has revealed a worrisome Google trend of displaying phishing sites when users search for CoinMarketCap (CMC).

Being the most dominant search engine around, Google remains the go-to option for users looking to make searches on the world wide web, this includes cryptocurrency proponents. Due to its reputation, several users tend to place a certain amount of trust in the search engine.

Recent data suggests such trust might be misplaced, as CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao revealed that Google tends to display phishing links whenever users make searches for top crypto price tracker CoinMarketCap (CMC).

“Google displays phishing sites when users search CMC. This affects users adding smart contract addresses to MetaMask using these phishing sites,” CZ disclosed in a tweet today.

Google displays phishing sites when users search CMC. This affects users adding smart contract addresses to MetaMask using these phishing sites. We are trying to contact Google for this, and in the meantime alerting users about this through social channels. pic.twitter.com/3q4860Jl4H

— CZ ? Binance (@cz_binance) October 27, 2022

The 45-year-old Chinese-Canadian business executive shared a screenshot to corroborate his claim. The screenshot features a search for CoinMarketCap on Google, with the first two results from Google leading to phishing sites.

This trend poses a danger to unsuspecting users who might patronize these links in attempts to add smart contract addresses to MetaMask, amongst other risks. As the cryptocurrency scene sees massive growth, so do scam efforts increase.

CZ further mentioned that he and his team are looking to resolve the issue by contacting Google on the worrisome trend. Additionally, he noted that they are forewarning users about the issue to create more vigilance pending a resolution from Google.

The trend has been met with bitter condemnation from several proponents. In addition to Google displaying phishing sites, some individuals highlighted the growing concern of what appears to be a bot invasion on Crypto Twitter, as several tweets from top crypto personalities have been riddled with bot comments linking to phishing sites.

As The Crypto Basic previously reported, founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, in August, lamented on the increasing rate of bot activity in the comment section of tweets on Crypto Twitter. Recall that Elon Musk’s initial refusal to carry on with his Twitter buyout deal was prompted by his concerns of bots contributing massively to Twitter’s user base.

Google and Twitter are two tech giants that expose the community to several crypto-related content. If scam artists are leveraging these platforms to defraud unsuspecting users, it raises a serious concern, as crypto-related scams have seen a massive surge in recent times.

A recent report from Solidus Labs revealed the growing rate of cryptocurrency scams, as it flagged close to 200,000 rug pulls and smart contract scams, with 15 newly-deployed scams detected every hour.

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