User blames Google Ads for losing all funds in cryptocurrency and NFTs

Hackers managed to gain access to all of his social networks and services

16.01.2023 - 14:45

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2 min

What’s new? A Twitter user under the pseudonym NFT God complained about the loss of all his funds in cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens due to the download and use of fraudulent software. The user blamed Google for the incident because the app was promoted through Google Ads, an advertising service.

Last night my entire digital livelihood was violated. Every account connected to me both personally and professionally was hacked and used to hurt others. Less importantly, I lost a life changing amount of my net worth — NFT God (@NFT_GOD) January 15, 2023

What else is known? According to NTF God, he wanted to download OBS Studio, a free video recording and streaming software. After entering his search query, he clicked on the first link that Google Ads offered him and installed the program.

A few hours later the user began to receive messages saying his Twitter account had been compromised and fraudulent messages were being sent out on his behalf. Apart from Twitter, the scammers managed to access other social networks and services including Gmail, Substack, and Discord. In this, NFT God’s subscribers received phishing emails from hackers.

According to NFT God, he lost all of his digital assets as a result of the incident, including NFTs from the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) collection, as well as assets in his hardware wallet.

In November 2021, hackers also initiated a phishing attack promoting fake crypto companies’ pages through Google Ads. The damage was about $500 000. In May 2022, phishing pop-ups appeared on the websites of crypto services Etherscan, CoinGecko, and DeFi Pulse, offering to connect a MetaMask wallet. The reason for the attack was malicious code in the ads.

At the end of December 2022, hackers hacked into businessman Kevin O’Leary’s Twitter and posted links to phishing sites under the pretext of giving away BTC and ETH. In early January 2023, the developers of the cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask warned of a new type of scam involving transaction address poisoning.

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