Binance CEO Lambasts Google for Promoting Crypto Phishing, Scam Sites

Google as of now, has not commented on Zhao’s concerns.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 28 October 2022 11:37 IST

Binance CEO Lambasts Google for Promoting Crypto Phishing, Scam Sites

Photo Credit: Reuters

US crypto investors lost over $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,000 crore) in total to scam and phishing sites

Highlights

Zhao has shared screenshots of his Google search
Zhao fears crypto community members could be duped via fake websites
Google has been taking steps to tackle fake crypto sites but work still r

Google, despite its oversight on potentially risky crypto websites, has not been able to get rid of them from search that is exposing people to financial exploits on a daily basis. This allegation against Google has been raised by Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of US-based Binance crypto exchange. As per Zhao, phishing sites tagged as advertisements showed up on Google Search when a search for the CoinMarketCap website was triggered by him earlier this week. Gadgets 360 did not encounter the issue and cannot hence confirm Zhao's claims.

The 45-year-old crypto mogul shared a screenshot of his Google search on Twitter and wrote that his team is trying to get in touch with Google to flag the issue.

Google displays phishing sites when users search CMC. This affects users adding smart contract addresses to MetaMask using these phishing sites. We are trying to contact Google for this, and in the meantime alerting users about this through social channels. pic.twitter.com/3q4860Jl4H
— CZ :large_orange_diamond: Binance (@cz_binance) October 27, 2022

CoinMarketCap is a crypto data aggregator that was acquired by Binance back in 2020. The website tracks real-time movement of crypto assets while maintaining records and histories of each asset.

Since a large chunk of the global crypto community turns to CoinMarketCap for their investment-related decisions, Zhao said, its essential that Google tackles the display of wrongful scam sites that appear on search for CoinMarketCap.

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Google as of now, has not commented on Zhao's concerns.

Off late, several reports of phishing scams targeting unsuspecting crypto investors have made it to the headlines. A recent report by BanklessTimes had claimed that US-based crypto investors lost over $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,000 crore) in total to scam and phishing sites.

In the backdrop of these financial risks, Google has been taking efforts to ensure that people do not fall prey to hackers swarming to the cryptosphere. Last year, Google Play removed eight deceptive cryptocurrency apps after they were discovered to be crypto scam apps.

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In fact, in July this year, Apple and Google received letters from US lawmakers, asking for details on crypto-related apps that are available on the App Store and Play Store respectively. In these letters, Senator Sherrod Brown, the chair of the Senate Banking Committee also asked the companies to provide information on the ways they tackle potentially dangerous apps that may be promoting crypto scams.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Binance, Changpeng Zhao, Google, Phishing, Scam Sites

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More