Even search engines can get suckered by World Wide Web scams.

With a little sleight of hand, con artists can dupe them into giving top billing to forged Web sites that prey on consumers, making unwitting accomplices of companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Online charlatans typically try to lure public into giving away their personal or financial info by posing as valid companies in “phishing” e-mails or through messages in forums such as Twitter and Facebook.

But a new study by shield researcher Jim Stickley shows how search engines additionally can turn into funnels for shady schemes.

Stickley created a Web site purporting to belong to the Credit Union of Southern California, a real business that agreed to be part of the experiment. He thereupon used his knowledge of how search engines rank Web sites to achieve something that shocked him: His phony site got a No. 2 ranking […]

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