Recent campaigns have exploited:
• Google Ads
• Facebook sponsored posts
• Fake Microsoft download pages
• AI chatbot shared links
• Developer package repositories

Researchers say attackers increasingly prefer “malvertising” because it scales faster and exploits user trust in major platforms.

In many cases, the attack chain now looks like this:

1. User searches trusted crypto platform
2. Sponsored ad appears legitimate
3. User connects wallet
4. Malicious contracts drain assets within seconds

As crypto adoption grows, search engines and social platforms are becoming some of the most important battlegrounds for Web3 security.