Google continues to struggle with cybercriminals running malicious ads on its search platform to trick people into downloading booby-trapped copies of popular free software applications. The malicious ads, which appear above organic search results and often precede links to legitimate sources of the same software, can make searching for software on Google a dicey affair.
this isn’t anything new. fake downloads, malware, and scam support sites and links and phone numbers have been a thing in results since they started putting paid placements and ads in serp… and even before then, back when simple keyword spam could game the algorithms.