Bank customers searching for a login page can now be led into a trap before they receive a suspicious email or text message.
Criminals are manipulating Google and Bing results so that fraudulent banking pages appear where people expect to find legitimate services.
Instead of compromising a real website, the operators register lookalike names, then build pages around the words users type into Google or Bing.
Victims who click a highly ranked result can be shown a convincing copy of a banking site built to collect passwords and hijack active sessions.
Analysts at Fortra Intelligence and Research Experts, known as FIRE, identified a sharp rise in this activity during the second quarter of 2026. The campaigns targeted several major financial institutions and their customers.
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