McAfee Study Reveals the Most Dangerous Celebrity Names to Search Online
The summer-time phenomenon known as Barbenheimer lit up the box office and rejuvenated moviegoing, but it’s also been an unexpected boon for online scam artists.
A yearly report by McAfee Labs set out to identify the popular celebrities whose names most frequently generate malicious search results. This year, it evolved slightly to include celebrities who often appear in deep fake or other AI-generated content.
It determined that Ryan Gosling, Ken himself, was the most dangerous name to search online. Fellow Barbie stars Margot Robbie and America Ferrera also charted fairly high, at numbers eight and 10, respectively.
McAfee said of Gosling: “His popularity skyrocketed after the movie's release, as did the amount of Barbie and Ryan Gosling-related scams.” Those included redirecting ticket buyers to bunk sites, or ones in which those hoping to find a free download of the movie were similarly redirected.
Second on the list was Oppenheimer star Emily Blunt, who likewise saw a huge bump in consumer popularity after Christopher Nolan’s biopic was released in July. Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, and Kevin Costner rounded out the top five most dangerous names to Google.
Scammers use the names to entice users to click on links which might compromise personal information or infect their computer with malware. It’s especially common for them to combine celebrity names with terms like “audiobook, lyrics, deep fake, free ringtone, free movie, free download, [and] MP4,” which then lead to nefarious pages.
“In today's culture, where celebrity news and entertainment are part of many people's daily lives, people are putting speed and convenience over their own online protection by clicking on pop-ups and other suspicious links that promise celebrity-filled content,” Steve Grobma, McAfee's Chief Technology Officer, told Daily Mail. “If it sounds too good to be true, it deserves a closer look.”
Grobma warned that artificial intelligence has made it increasingly easy for people to devise intricate ruses. “AI has changed the game, and cybercriminals can now create very sophisticated scams at scale using the latest AI tools, and what better hook for them than celebrity news and information,” he warned."
Some other notable figures also made the list further down. Lionel Messi ranked as the 18th most dangerous name, while Tom Brady came in at number 19. Meanwhile, Travis Kelce came in at 22 with his new girlfriend Taylor Swift just a few spots behind at 25.
You can view the top 10 most dangerous celebs below:
Ryan Gosling
Emily Blunt
Jennifer Lopez
Zendaya
Kevin Costner
Elon Musk
Al Roker
Margot Robbie
Bad Bunny
America Ferrera
