Is pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com legit or a scam?
A malicious Google clone used in malvertising and phishing campaigns, flagged by nine security engines for credential theft and malware delivery.
These checks passed — but they don't clear the site. A clean antivirus result, valid SSL, and a calm server only mean it isn't hosting malware; they say nothing about whether the business is real. This verdict is based on the site's conduct and content, not a malware detection.
Analysis Summary
Brand impersonation — not the real site
9 of 92 antivirus engines flag this page (9 outright malicious). This page is styled as a brand but is not the brand's real site. Go to the official site directly, and treat any download, login, or payment request here as unsafe.
Website Preview
Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site. See full visual analysis →
MT Intelligence
The domain is a blatant impersonation of Google, using its branding and layout on a non-official domain to deceive users. Our antivirus network shows nine major engines, including BitDefender, Kaspersky, and Fortinet, flagging the site for phishing and malware. Technical analysis confirms it is part of the 'ApateWeb' campaign, which uses multi-hop redirects to lead users into credential-theft traps. The site's behavior of redirecting to the real Google after loading malicious elements is a classic fingerprint of a phishing flow. Furthermore, the domain is linked to shady ad networks known for distributing malvertising.
Web Research Findings
Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.
- Subdomain pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com presents as "Google" and is part of a pattern of pl#####.effectivegatecpm.com subdomains used in malvertising or phishing chains.
- effectivegatecpm.com flagged as phishing by multiple scanners: Gridinsoft (1/100 trust, 12 blacklists), PCrisk (5/100, 11/91 engines, Phishing And Fraud category).
- Domain redirects to www.google.com after displaying impersonation elements; behavior matches credential-theft patterns (impersonation, urgency, data request).
- Listed in AdGuard filters (annoyance/ad-related issue); associated with shady ad network and malvertising infrastructure per Reddit and Augur Security research.
- VirusTotal and other reports show 8-11 security vendors detecting it as malicious (Kaspersky, Webroot, Certego, SOCRadar, ADMINUSLabs, etc.).
- Part of ApateWeb malware campaign per MalwareURL; used in multi-hop malvertising on piracy/streaming sites; seen 85 times in 90 days on CheckPhish.
- Registered recently (~264 days old as of scan); hosted in US on Servers.com with active but suspicious SSL.
- Gridinsoftopen
"We flagged Effectivegatecpm.com as phishing. The page behavior matches a common credential-theft flow: impersonation first, urgency second, data request last."
- PCriskopen
"Category: Phishing And Fraud... Flagged by 11 of 91 engines... Trust Score: 5/100... Potentially Dangerous"
- PhishDestroyopen
"www.effectivegatecpm.com impersonates Google... page titled “https://google.com/” , which may be designed to impersonate Google... 8/95 VT vendors flag as malicious (incl. Kaspersky, Webroot, Certego, SOCRadar)"
Page title "Google", redirects to www.google.com, impersonates Google search/homepage, flagged for credential-theft flow with impersonation
Scam Network Intelligence
Antivirus Engines
Security Scans
Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.
Contact Verification
We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.
- No contact email found anywhere on the page.
- No phone number listed on the page.
- No postal address visible on the page.
- Page impersonates Google on a non-official domain.
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com/
- 2301https://google.com/cross-domain
- 3200https://www.google.com/cross-domain
Server Reputation
Scam-Type Likelihood
1 scam-type patterns detected
1 of 13 categories showed signals
We check every URL against 13 distinct scam categories so the verdict tells you not just how risky the page is, but what kind of risk it carries. Each meter pulls from page signals, web reports, our AI analyst, vision, and the scam-network cluster — not from raw AV labels.
- Page claims to be Google.
- AI analyst tagged this as a brand / clone-site impersonation.
- Clustered with known brand-impersonation infrastructure.
1 of 13 categories showed signals
We check every URL against 13 distinct scam categories so the verdict tells you not just how risky the page is, but what kind of risk it carries. Each meter pulls from page signals, web reports, our AI analyst, vision, and the scam-network cluster — not from raw AV labels.
- Page claims to be Google.
- AI analyst tagged this as a brand / clone-site impersonation.
- Clustered with known brand-impersonation infrastructure.
Brand impersonation detected
This page is styled as a known brand but is not the brand's real site.
- Do not interact with pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com
Do not enter credentials, deposit money, download files, or install browser extensions from this site.
- Go to the brand's real site directly
Type the brand name into a search engine or open it from your bookmarks — don't use links from emails, SMS, ads, or social posts, which are the delivery vectors for impersonation.
- Never download or sign in here
Even if the page "just" offers a download or a giveaway, impersonation pages frequently deliver malware or set up follow-up phishing. Assume anything accepted from this site is hostile.
- OpenReport the impersonation to the brand
Most major brands have a dedicated abuse or anti-phishing reporting channel — reporting helps them take the site down and protects other users.
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
Safety FAQ
Common questions about this site, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.
- Our automated security review flags pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com as dangerous. Multiple threat indicators were detected — treat the site as a scam until proven otherwise.
- No — pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com scored 1/100 on our trust scale. We detected active threat indicators, so we recommend avoiding the site entirely.
- Yes. pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com presents a valid TLSv1.2 certificate issued by Let's Encrypt · YR1, expiring in 65 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
- pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com is 8 months old, registered on 10/7/2025 through eNom, LLC. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.
- 9 out of 92 antivirus engines in our malware network flagged pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com as malicious or suspicious (9 outright malicious). Even one detection is a meaningful signal.
- No. pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
- pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com resolves to an IP operated by Servers.com, Inc. in US (usage type: Content Delivery Network). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad, but unusual geography for a brand's claimed country is one of many signals we weigh.
- This is a permanent record of the scan run on June 29, 2026. The verdict and evidence above reflect that scan and do not change on their own. If circumstances around pl28496882.effectivegatecpm.com have changed, MalwareTips staff can run a fresh scan, which re-runs every check from scratch and publishes an updated report.
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