Binance Boss warns users about crypto scam sites on Google search results
Crypto scams are now as popular as legitimate projects in space. With the number of new tokens being pushed into the market, the number of scam tokens actually outnumbers those with good intentions, and the battle against them continues. One way these scammers promote their projects is through ads, and while platforms like Google seem to be cracking down on the ads, they continue to appear on search results, according to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ).
Crypto scams still on Google
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) chimed in Twitter to warn users about Google search results that have pointed to scam sites. The tweet accompanied by a screenshot showed search results for Coinmarketcap, a blockchain data aggregation site.
However, instead of pointing to the real website, the screenshot showed several results leading to what appeared to be a phishing and scam website. Both of these can lead to loss for a user if they didn’t pay attention to what they clicked on.
“Google shows phishing sites when users search CMC. This affects users who add smart contract addresses to MetaMask using these phishing sites, the tweet said. “We are trying to contact Google about this, and in the meantime notify users about this through social channels.”
Total market cap below $1 trillion | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingView.com
A little known fact is that Binance actually owns the Coinmarketcap cap after buying it back in 2020. So it is understandable to see why the Binance CEO is posting this warning. Phishing scams are prevalent in the crypto space. In September, a report showed that Australians had lost more than $242 million to crypto scams by 2022. With the number much larger for the general market.
Reduction of advertising revenue
Google’s relationship with the crypto market has taken a turn since the bear market began. Much of the ad spending is done on Google by crypto companies to place their sites at the top of search results, but as the market downturn has continued, crypto firms have slowed their ad spending.
Given this, Google has seen a decline in the amount of advertising revenue generated from the crypto market. It reported a 6% decline in crypto ad revenue for the third quarter of 2022. During the earnings call, it was said that financial and crypto firms had actually reduced their search spending during this time. Hence the slight decline in advertising revenue compared to the 2nd quarter.
Nevertheless, Google ads remain a top choice for crypto advertisers. Since platforms like Meta (formerly Facebook) ban such ads, they flock to platforms like Google that still allow such ads.
Featured image from Entrepreneur, chart from TradingView.com
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