Amidst the rise in artificial intelligence (AI) driven scams, Google warns of another new scam. The tech giant says that the new scam named ‘Cloaking’ can mimic original content to manipulate ‘search rankings and deceive users’. This technique can also use AI for creating a fake (seems original) website luring you to land in scams. Here’s a detailed look at ‘Cloaking’ and how you can stay safe from it.
Decoding ‘Cloaking’: The scam under the hood
So what is ‘Cloaking’ and how can it affect you? In an official blog Google explained that ‘Cloaking’ refers to the practice of serving different content to search engines such as Google and users. The main aim is to manipulate and deceive you. For example you are searching for a website and you get redirected to it. But there’s the trick! This website that you have landed on is not genuine and can secretly drain your data. These data will later get used for fraudulent purposes such as email phishing, deepfakes and money laundering, among others.
Another scam could be the use of hyper-realistic impersonation using AI for fake crypto investment schemes. For example, you see a website marketing for crypto investment and you try investing in these. Alas, you just landed up in a money laundering scam!
Additionally, ‘cloaking’ can also land you up in ad-driven scams. For example, users clicking on ads get redirected through tracking templates to scareware sites. These sites show that your devices are being affected by malware. You then receive a customer support call for taking actions to repair your device. However, these calls are scam calls waiting for you to get personal information. You eventually get tricked into sharing sensitive information, which then gets used for identity theft activities.
Safety measures
Furthermore, “Cloaking is specifically designed to prevent moderation systems and teams from reviewing policy-violating content which enables them to deploy the scam directly to users,” Laurie Richardson, VP and Head of Trust and Safety at Google, explained.
Looking ahead, the company said it has blocked or removed more than 5.5 billion advertisements. These ads were violating Google’s safety policies in 2023. In addition to this, it will also roll out live scam detection in its Phone app for Android. This feature aims to secure users against potential scams and fraud. Notably, the ‘scam detection’ feature uses Google’s Gemini Nano on-device AI model.
In addition to this you can also take personal safety measures. This includes not answering to suspicious calls, addressing any fake activity to the cybersecurity helpline and installing a strong anti-virus or similar apps, among others.
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