Overview

• Scammers craft malicious URLs in sponsored Google ads that modify search parameters on sites like Netflix, PayPal and Apple to display their phone numbers in support search bars.
• Victims calling these spoofed numbers may be connected to imposters seeking personal or financial information or requesting remote computer access.
• Malwarebytes warns that red flags include phone numbers embedded in URLs, urgent language prompts, encoded characters such as %20 or %2B and search results appearing before queries.
• The campaign has also targeted support pages for Microsoft, Facebook, Bank of America and HP, with Apple’s site identified as particularly difficult to detect when compromised.
• Users are advised to navigate directly to official support sections, compare numbers against previously verified emails or messages and install Malwarebytes Browser Guard to spot hijacking attempts.