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This encourages victims to act quickly without inspecting the legitimacy of the website linked in the ad.

This also makes it more challenging for users to distinguish between legitimate and malicious ads.

A padlock resting on a keyboard.

Adding to the complexity, threat actors employ techniques to mask their identities and evade detection.

By hijacking trusted accounts, attackers can bypasssecuritymeasures designed to prevent malicious organizations from buying ad space.

Leads Threat Operations and Internal Security at Huntress.

These attacks aim to catch the victim while they are in a hurry to plant the software.

The malicious ads then lead to a cloned QuickBooks website that serves users as a compromised installer.

Similarly, fakebrowserextensions imitate legitimate ones, tricking users into installing them.

Keep your web client updated, and dont make attackers jobs easier.

How would this vendor be aware you had a virus on your machine?

Many of these scams claim to be Microsoft technician support or their security team.

Check to see where the ad is going to take you.

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The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc.