I have a physicist friend who somehow installed a fake Google Chrome, which still blows my mind to this day. Either his searches must have already been hijacked

I have a physicist friend who somehow installed a fake Google Chrome, which still blows my mind to this day. Either his searches must have already been hijacked or Google really doesn't filter the ads at the top of the first page. Luckily enough he never got pwned despite conducting basically his entire digital life through that browser. Badware is still alive and well, but it's mostly tricking people into installing it. The days of ActiveX zero clicks are indeed (and thankfully!) long behind us.