Beware! Even a Google search can make you lose money; here is how

You must have come across different ways through which scamsters try to fool people and steal their hard-earned money. Some of these popular methods include sending fake SMS or emails. But, you would be surprised that even a simple Google Search can make you lose money. Well, this type of fraud has its links with crypto industry which has been in several controversies in the past too. Researchers have discovered that when you search for Bitcoin QR code generators on Google, most results shown on the page are fake or of scammy websites. 

The study reported that 4 out of the first 5 results presented when querying Google were leading to scammer’s website. The researchers from crypto wallet provider ZenGo have claimed that if you use any of these links, then the QR codes generated from these fake websites will send the Bitcoin to the scammers address. These QR codes are used by the mobile phone cameras to capture the data.

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“These sites generate a QR code that encodes an address controlled by the scammers, instead of the one requested by the user, thus directing all payments for this QR code to the scammers. Scammers do not even bother with generating their fake QR themselves, instead they shamelessly call a blockchain explorer API to generate the QR for their address," the researchers said.

Notably, as much as $20,000 has been lost to QR code scams however that figure could be much higher.

The more concerning fact is that the search engine giant is failing to stop these fake links to appear on its search page. This once again underlines the fact that you can't trust everything shown by Google or posted on Facebook. So, make sure you read about these links and research before using them.