Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: No More Deceptive Download Buttons

Webmaster Central Blog

Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index

No More Deceptive Download Buttons

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Google Security BlogNovemberunwanted softwarerevealing your personal information

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.

Below are some examples of deceptive content, shown via ads:

This image claims that your software is out-of-date to trick you into clicking “update”.

This image mimics a dialogue from the FLV software developer -- but it does not actually originate from this developer.

These buttons seem like they will produce content that relate to the site (like a TV show or sports video stream) by mimicking the site’s look and feel. They are often not distinguishable from the rest of the page.
Our fight against unwanted software and social engineering is still just beginning. We'll continue to improve Google's Safe Browsing protection to help more people stay safe online.
Will my site be affected?
If visitors to your web site consistently see social engineering content, Google Safe Browsing may warn users when they visit the site. If your site is flagged for containing social engineering content, you should troubleshoot with Search Console. Check out our social engineering help for webmasters.Posted by Lucas Ballard, Safe Browsing Team