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We started last week with the Russian Google Game series detailing how operators of fraudulent crypto marketing campaigns run ads on Google search engine pages via fake publishers in Russia. While Google UK & Ireland tightened the rules for placing financial ads in August 2021, making it harder for scammers and their marketing agencies to get in, Google continues to allow scammers to chase consumers in the EU despite regulatory warnings. Here’s another update on the Russian Google Game.
Key data
| Scheme | Russian Google Game |
| Activity | Promoting fraudulent crypto campaigns via Google |
| Promoted scam brand | Bitcoin Prime, Bitcoin Revolution, Bitcoin Evolution Bitcoin Loophole, Bitcoin Up, and others |
| Fake Russian publishers | Portsmouth Electricians (https://portsmouthelectricians.com/) Touches Stamps (https://touchesstamps.com) Lowrys Mechanical (https://lowrysmechanical.com) Your Visualisis (https://yourvisualises.com) Poja (www.poja.com) BibleTellsUsSo (www.bibletellsusso.com) Woodhorsta (www.woodhorsta.com) Prepartisan (www.prepartisam.com) FitnessNgearWorkout (www.fitnessngearworkout.com) BedAndPool (www.bedandpool.com) PlantsScaping (www.plantsscaping.com) Cognitive Mattress (www.cognitivemattress.com) |
| Landing pages | https://whetherk.com, https://securelyrich.com and others |
The fraud narrative
Our whistleblowers have informed us today from Italy about the results of their investigations. While searching for the two fraudulent crypto campaigns “Bitcoin Revolution” and “Bitcoin Evolution,” they discovered five more Russian fake publishers fishing for victims via Financial Ads on Google. In the table, these five newly discovered publishers are Portsmouth Electricians, Touches Stamps, Lowrys Mechanical, Your Visualisis, and Poja in bold.
All of these publishers work with Russian websites and the credentials of Russian companies. It should be very easy for Google to detect these fake publishers. However, Google does not seem to want to do that.
Regulatory warnings
At this point, we would like to repeat that most recently the Spanish CNMV and the German BaFin issued warnings and cease-and-desist orders against both Bitcoin Evolution and Bitcoin Revolution, respectively. So it is well known that these are scams or fraudulent campaigns.
The sole purpose of these crypto campaigns is to catch victims for broker scams and illegally operating regulated brokers.
Share information
If you have any information about Russian Google Game and its operators, please let us know through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
