Online shoppers are being urged to double check the authenticity of websites before they enter their bank card details, as scammers are increasingly using paid adverts on search engines to promote fake sites as legitimate businesses.
Hidd Police Station head Colonel Dr Osama Bahar has also recommended that people educate themselves on how to properly search for their desired product or service.
“When we all search for a service or product online, most of use tend to use Google,” he said, speaking on the Al Aman show on social media.
“It shows you a list of related websites, but some of them might be nothing more than fraudulent schemes.
“Before a list of options are shown in the search results, a group of adverts appear before the websites which we are supposed to go through.
“These websites are paid adverts with small print usually above them saying ‘Sponsored’ in English or ‘Advertisement’ in Arabic.
“Imagine, Google is showing you these search results, but they might be scams. Fraudsters are buying these advertising spaces and placing them on the website.”
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