Bing China's Autosuggest Gets Rented Out: Grey-Market Spam Floods '收款码' Dropdown
TL;DR
Bing China's autosuggest for '收款码' is flooded with grey-market ads; overseas Bing is unaffected, Microsoft has not responded.
Microsoft's Bing China has had its search autosuggest column overrun by grey-market spam this week. Users typing "收款码" (payment collection code) see rows of promotional strings dropping down, pointing to shady payment-agent, cash-out and suspected money-laundering sites. Other payment, lending and grey-industry roots trigger the same pollution. Overseas IPs hitting international Bing are clean, which points to a targeted operation against
Chinese tech outlets Landian News and IT Home flagged the incident on July 8. Landian wrote that Bing is "being brushed by black-and-grey market platforms," using the same tactic that once flooded Baidu's dropdown: dispersed IP pools and rapid-dial modems simulating real users repeatedly searching the same long-tail keyword combinations, pushing merchant-desired phrases into Bing's autosuggest. IT Home reported these services are sold as packaged offerings, priced per keyword per day for front-page dropdown placement.
Three months ago Landian documented a parallel case: searching "Chrome" on Bing China returned three top results from Heilongjiang provincial domain
The contrast is that Microsoft used to sell anti-abuse as a Bing selling point. In 2018 Bing Ads banned third-party "online tech support" promotions after tracking sites that pushed trojans stealing bank card numbers and CVV codes. The same platform is now leasing out its own suggestion slots. Citizen Lab's 2024 Bada Bing, Bada Boom report showed North American Bing censoring Chinese political autosuggestions within hours; Guangzhou spam operators appear to get a longer runway.
Microsoft China has not responded. At press time the "收款码" dropdown on
via IT Home / NetEase Tech / Landian News / Citizen Lab
cn.bing.com.Chinese tech outlets Landian News and IT Home flagged the incident on July 8. Landian wrote that Bing is "being brushed by black-and-grey market platforms," using the same tactic that once flooded Baidu's dropdown: dispersed IP pools and rapid-dial modems simulating real users repeatedly searching the same long-tail keyword combinations, pushing merchant-desired phrases into Bing's autosuggest. IT Home reported these services are sold as packaged offerings, priced per keyword per day for front-page dropdown placement.
Three months ago Landian documented a parallel case: searching "Chrome" on Bing China returned three top results from Heilongjiang provincial domain
hl.cn subdomains, impersonating Google and pushing modified Chrome installers that hijacked browser homepages. The current "收款码" autosuggest pollution is the same operator class shifting from organic results into the suggestion column.The contrast is that Microsoft used to sell anti-abuse as a Bing selling point. In 2018 Bing Ads banned third-party "online tech support" promotions after tracking sites that pushed trojans stealing bank card numbers and CVV codes. The same platform is now leasing out its own suggestion slots. Citizen Lab's 2024 Bada Bing, Bada Boom report showed North American Bing censoring Chinese political autosuggestions within hours; Guangzhou spam operators appear to get a longer runway.
Microsoft China has not responded. At press time the "收款码" dropdown on
cn.bing.com remained uncleared.via IT Home / NetEase Tech / Landian News / Citizen Lab