Bot Traffic Attackers Now Demand $5K in BTC From Google Adsense Account Owners

In what could be described as taking things to the extreme, hackers have reportedly devised a new technique to extort publishers who are part of the Google Adsense program. 

According to a recent report by KrebsOnSecurity, some publishers on the Google Adsense program are being threatened to pay the sum of $5,000 in Bitcoin (BTC). A failure to do so would result in the hackers flooding the publishers’ blog with junk ads that could get the users into trouble. 

A participant of the Google Adsense program shared the message he received from the hackers with KrebsOnSecurity, which reads: 

Very soon, the warning notice from above will appear at the dashboard of your AdSense account undoubtedly.” The message continued: “This will happen because we’re about to flood your site with a huge amount of direct bot-generated web traffic with 100% bounce ratio and thousands of IP’s in rotation — a nightmare for every AdSense publisher.

The hackers further promised to adjust their allegedly “sophisticated bots” to open every Adsense banner on a victim’s website in an endless cycle and in different time duration. 

Even though the new fraudulent technique could increase the user’s earning on the program, it could also lead to the suspension of the user’s account, as so much bot and junk traffic could trigger Google’s automated anti-fraud systems. 

The fraudsters subsequently promised to flood the user’s website again if they refuse to pay up, and Google eventually lifts the ban, which would lead to a second ban or a permanent loss of the user’s Adsense account. 

With such threats, the attackers believe that publishers would rather choose to pay the $5,000 demanded than risk losing their Google Adsense or watch all their earnings refunded to advertisers.   

KrebsOnSecurity revealed that initially, the user thought the threat was baseless. However, a recent review of his Google Adsense traffic statistics indicated that “invalid traffic report” had gained a significant increase in the past month. 

Responding to the development, Google confirmed that the antic had been employed several times in the past by hackers to get illicit gains. However, the IT firm stated that necessary security techniques had been adopted to “prevent against invalid traffic across its products.” 

Meanwhile, this is not the first time hackers are targetting giant IT corporations.  Last year, Coinfomania reported that hackers breached Microsoft security systems to steal cryptocurrency customers’ Outlook, Hotmail, or MSN accounts information and logins, which lead to the loss of their funds.