FAKE ‘Chrome Download’ Link Tries To Install Adware And Malware

Whenever we recommend downloading a program we remember the importance of doing it from its main or official web page, making sure to download the latest version and, in addition, not download any type of potentially unwanted program, or PUP, that could endanger our security.

However, malicious users are increasingly trying to deceive us, and so we find campaigns as complex as the ads to download the browser that shows a false URL that does not correspond to the address of the page in question.

As the Bleeping Computer website warns, in recent weeks about malicious advertising campaigns which are being carried out that seek to take us to third-party websites when we try to download a browser such as Google Chrome. One of the latest malicious campaigns we can find of this type focuses on Bing, the default search engine of Microsoft Edge and Cortana.

One of the first things we usually do after installing the operating system is to download an alternative web browser, and for this, we usually resort to what we have at hand, ie Internet Explorer or Edge and Bing. A simple search should take us to the Google website to download the browser, however, many queries are showing an ad, which seems to Google, to make this download.

Despite the fact that the ad shows Google as its web address, in fact, if we access it we will reach another different web page, a malicious page that offers us to download an unwanted application installer, and it is an installer which is already detected by VirusTotal.

If for some reason we come to this page from Google Chrome, then instead of a web to download the browser we will see a page that offers us to download extensions for the browser, malicious extensions that endanger our browsing and system security

Normally these types of campaigns usually remain active for a few days, because when they are reported they do not take long to be eliminated.

Browsers are not the only programs that can be downloaded from fake download websites

In addition to these advertising campaigns, many well-known programs also have visibility problems in the main Internet search engines, such as GIMP or VLC.

Some malicious users have created web pages in order to profit from the free software offering false download of these popular programs. The problem with this is that, in addition, these websites tend to be positioned above the official websites, so when we search for “download gimp” we will see several unofficial websites to download this software positioned above the official one.

The same happens with VLC and other programs, and although some websites can offer us the official version of the program, some of the ones that appear in the previous capture are well known for having distributed these applications through an installer that, In addition to generating revenue at the expense of users, they ended up filling our computer with junk applications, including malware.

We must always be very careful with the websites from which we are going to download software, checking and making sure that they are always the official pages, not a website that we have reached from an advertisement or a page that positions better and tries to profit at the expense of the users.

Have you ever found these types of ads or fake websites to download applications from the Internet? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below.