Google cracks down on shady, fake download buttons

By

You'll probably see more of this screen until things get fixed.
You'll probably see more of this screen until things get fixed.
Photo: Google

If you use Google’s Chrome web browser, you’re now even safer from sneaky advertisers that try to get you to download their crummy software with fake download buttons.

Chances are you’ve seen these around, even on some large sites like Sourceforge and CNET, and might have clicked on one or two by accident, as intended.

Google’s new addition to its Safe Browsing initiative will block sites that have these deceptive download buttons on them.

As of November of last year, Google already blocks sites that try to trick you into doing something dangerous, like installing unwanted software or giving away your personal info like passwords or credit cards via phishing techniques.

Google will now block sites that use social engineering, which it defines as sites that:

  • Pretend to act, or look and feel, like a trusted entity — like your own device or browser, or the website itself.
  • Try to trick you into doing something you’d only do for a trusted entity — like sharing a password or calling tech support.

Google provides a few examples, too. The first pretends that your software is out-of-date which might trick you into clicking the “update” button, the second mimics a dialog box from Adobe’s Flash software to trick you into clicking on it, and the third looks just like the download buttons on the site its on, though it will not get you the content you want, like TV shows or sports video streams.

out-of-date

flv install

download play

Source: Google
Via: ArsTechnica

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