Trader on Polymarket loses hundreds of thousands of USD due to fake Uniswap ads on Google

A trader on Polymarket lost hundreds of thousands of USD worth of digital assets after clicking on a fake Uniswap advertisement that appeared at the top of Google search results. The comments section afterward was flooded with condolences from friends and the victim’s contacts.

The founder of DefiLlama shared the incident as a warning to the crypto community. At the same time, the Uniswap founder officially reiterated this warning, stating that such scams have existed for many years and that the team has been continuously dealing with them. He described the fake website ecosystem operated through advertising as a “toxic advertising economy” and believes this model needs to be eliminated.

Uniswap is one of the most popular methods for traders to swap tokens directly on the blockchain without giving custody of assets to centralized exchanges.

The six-figure loss is the latest example in a series of attacks where malicious actors buy search ads to direct users to nearly identical fake websites that mimic legitimate platforms. Victims click on the ads, connect their wallets, and sign malicious transactions. This approval grants the attacker the right to withdraw assets or execute transactions directly from the victim’s wallet.

For years, fake search ads have continuously led users to phishing sites impersonating popular crypto applications.

“Scam-as-a-Service” Tools for Uniswap Fraud

The wallet-draining tool used in this incident is AngelFerno — a “scam as a service” script targeting DeFi users. Previously, this tool was used in fake interface attacks on OpenEden and Curvance.

AngelFerno operates on multiple domains listed in the GitHub phishing blocklist. Users are advised not to access these addresses.

Another sophisticated tactic involves using Cyrillic characters in domain names — also known as Punycode URLs — making fake addresses look almost indistinguishable from real domains at a glance.

Chainalysis and many security researchers have repeatedly warned that phishing ads on Google are a major attack vector. For example, in July 2025, a DeFi user lost $1.2 million in a nearly identical Uniswap scam, also via fake Google ads.

On-chain investigator ZachXBT called for strict sanctions against Google for failing to effectively block scam ads.

Protos reports that they contacted the victim to confirm the estimated damages in the mid-six figures and “entire net worth,” but have not received a response as of publication. The victim later publicly confirmed that he lost a six-figure sum after being deceived by a fake Google ad.