14 DAY TRIAL // Experts from Netcraft have spotted a cybercriminal campaign that relies on black hat SEO (search engine optimization) techniques to attract users to fake Mulberry websites.
The cybercriminals hijack legitimate websites and plant malign JavaScript on them. To make these compromised sites more relevant to search engines, they include descriptions for various Mulberry products.
They also include links to their bogus Mulberry stores.
It appears the technique is paying off because some of the hacked websites appear on the first page of a Google search.
“Such underhanded methods of search engine optimisation (SEO) are not unusual, and can potentially outperform traditional spam-based marketing,” Netcraft’s Paul Mutton explained.
“For instance, there is likely to be a much larger conversion rate among customers who are actively searching for a specific product than there would be among recipients of spam, many of whom would have no intention of buying anything, and – thanks to spam filters – may not even receive the spam in the first place.”