Branded Gambling Campaigns: How Scammers Are Exploiting Trusted Brand Names to Drive Casino Traffic
Executive Summary
Netcraft has identified scam advertising campaigns that impersonate trusted brands to drive consumers to unrelated online gambling sites. These campaigns utilize paid social ads, fake app store pages, and Progressive Web Apps to make users believe that well-known brands have launched “official” casino or slot products.
The scams begin with an ad on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The ad claims that a recognizable brand has launched “[Brand] Slots” or a similar gambling product. Upon interacting with the ad, the user is taken to a fake landing page designed to look like an official app store listing or branded game page. Instead of installing a real app, the user is prompted to add a Progressive Web App to their device, which opens an unrelated online casino through affiliate tracking links.
How the Campaign Works
Regardless of which brand is being impersonated or which platform the ad appears on, these campaigns follow the same sequence, with three key components:
Figure 1: A Meta ad for “Tesco Slots”.
1. The paid ad: A consumer scrolling social media is served a paid ad. The ad purports to come from a recognisable brand - a bank, a retailer, or a streaming service - and claims the brand has launched an online slots product, or shows a convincing testimonial from someone who won big playing “[Brand] Slots”.
Figure 2: Fake Play Store page for “Amazon Slots”. This is the landing page that the above “Tesco Slots” ad leads to.
2. The landing page: The consumer taps the ad and lands on a fake landing page built around the impersonated brand’s logo and name - for example, a fake Google Play Store listing offering “[Brand] Slots”.
When the consumer taps “Install” on the fake Google Play Store listing, no Android app is downloaded. Instead, the page prompts the user to install a Progressive Web App (PWA) - a browser shortcut added to their home screen, labelled with the impersonated brand’s name, that looks and behaves like a native app.
