Fake Claude pages: a Google ad hijacks Bing to trap Mac users

On October 9, 2026, the company Push Security described a malvertising campaign targeting macOS users who are looking to install Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant. It starts with a Google ad shown for the search "claude mac." The ad displays the bing.com domain, which makes it look more credible. Push Security dubbed the technique "Adception" and says it found no earlier public report of a search ad using Bing as its destination.

A well-hidden redirect chain

According to Luke Jennings, vice president of R&D at Push Security, the click first goes through Google's ad redirect, then through a Bing tracking link. It then lands on the compromised WordPress site of a South American merchant, which finally redirects to a fake Claude download page, claude-desk-code[.]com.

Two filters hide the attack. The compromised site only redirects if the visitor arrives from Bing with certain browser headers. The fake page, for its part, shows a 404 error to any visitor who does not come from Google or Bing. An analyst who types the address directly therefore sees nothing suspicious.

The copy-paste trap

The fake page imitates Claude's and displays Anthropic's real install command. But the "Copy" button puts a different command on the clipboard. Once pasted into Terminal, it decodes a hidden address, downloads a script from lake-90[.]com and runs it. This is a variant of "ClickFix," a technique in which the victim runs the malicious code themselves. Push Security calls this one "InstallFix." The final payload has not been identified.

Push Security links several other domains to the same toolkit, which it calls "AcSig." According to the company, 4 out of 5 ClickFix attacks it detects reach their victims through search engines. BleepingComputer, which relayed the study, reports no reaction from Google or Anthropic.

Best practices

• Do not install software from an ad, even if it displays a familiar domain. Type the address of the vendor's official site yourself, or use a bookmark.
• Never paste into a terminal a command copied from a web page without rereading it after pasting. The displayed text and the copied text can differ.
• For businesses: block the domains published by Push Security, including claude-desk-code[.]com, cli-desktop[.]com and lake-90[.]com, and offer AI tools through a validated internal catalog.
• Raise awareness among developers in particular, who often use one-line install commands.