I lost a ‘life changing amount’ after clicking an ad on Google – don’t fall for the same trick
AN influencer has revealed how they lost a “life changing amount” after clicking on a fake advert link shown on Google.
NFT God said his “entire digital livelihood was violated” because of an ad that appeared on the popular search engine.
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“Every account connected to me both personally and professionally was hacked and used to hurt others,” he explained.
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“Less importantly, I lost a life changing amount of my net worth.
“My Twitter, Substack, Gmail, Discord, and wallets were all invaded and taken over by bad actors.”
The crypto investor was looking for OBS, a piece of video streaming software.
He claims to have clicked on the sponsored link shown on Google and downloaded what he thought was the app.
When trying to install it, nothing happened, so he gave up.
Then a few hours later he started receiving concerned messages on Twitter as his account had been hacked.
It turns out the app was malware.
“I quickly delete the scam tweets the hackers posted. Caught it 2 minutes after the links went live,” he continued.
“Phew. If only that were the last chapter of this story.
“Unfortunately it was just the first.”
Shortly after he found out his valuable crypto and NFTs had been transferred to another wallet.
But the hackers went one step further, accessing NFT God’s Substack, which is used for sending newsletters.
“The hackers sent 2 emails to my 16,000 closest fans with hacked links,” he said.
“Trust I’ve worked over a year to build was gone.
“Losing a chunk of my net worth is nothing compared to losing the trust of my community.”
He quickly deleted the post and sent a follow up warning fans not to click on any of the links previously sent.
According to Bleeping Computer, the incident is the latest in a “flurry” of malicious ads on Google Search.
They tend to impersonate popular free software.
In a statement to the publication, Google said: “We have robust policies prohibiting ads that attempt to circumvent our enforcement by disguising the advertiser’s identity and impersonating other brands, and we enforce them vigorously.
“We reviewed the ads in question and have removed them.”
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