Google’s anti-scam initiative, which is to alert users of potential scams, and while they are under scams that mimic to be from legitimate support services are struggling to safeguard the Gmail accounts of its users, and more than 2.5 billion people from all over the world are exposed to these major phishing threats.
Phishing is a type of cyberattack that is intended to steal personal information or other details from a person by mimicking it from a legitimate support service or a well-known source by sending deceptive mail. One of the Microsoft solution consultants met with this situation, where he fell victim to a phishing scam. According to the report by Forbes, Sam Mitrovic, who is working as a consultant at Microsoft, was tricked into revealing his personal information by a remarkable life-to-like AI scam call.
Sam didn’t fall into this trick the first time he received the mail; the scammers sent him a Google authentication lookalike email claiming to be from Gmail, and he chose to ignore it, aware of the potential scams going around. He also mentioned that he had received phone calls from both Sydney and Australia along with this. But later that week, he again received a similar Gmail call, to which he responded and fell prey to the phishing tactics of the scammers who mimicked being from Google support.
Sam Mitrovic wrote a blog containing all the details on the recent phishing attacks and how the scammers executed the attack, so the rest of Gmail users could avoid falling for these scams by compromising security by revealing their sensitive information. Through his blog, he revealed the scammer’s tactics, which I will mention below.
The scammers will first send you an email claiming to be from a well-known source or Google itself. For example, have you ever received an email consisting of an account recovery email or a password reset that you didn’t request? It is most likely a scam. If you fall into thinking that the link attached to it is the authentic portal of Google, think twice.
The attached link is not the original Google site; it is a counterfeit login page that the scammer created for a phishing scam. The scammers ask you to report the uninitiated password recovery through that portal while they collect all the required credentials through it.
The serial entrepreneur and investor Garry Tan posted about his phishing scam experience on X. Garry Tan received a Gmail claiming that a family member of his was trying to recover his account. The scammer pretended to be a Google support person and created this fake scenario to set Garry in panic, assuming that it would prompt Garry to take action by reporting this through the fake login page.
The scammer utilizes many applications from Google to create legitimate lookalike documents, such as Google Forms. These scammers are a huge threat to Google, as their users are being targeted, and Google claims that they are working with a global anti-scam alliance in the matter.
The DNS research federation also joined the force to find the solution. Google will ensure the privacy and security of their users back soon; till then, being careful and avoiding these potential threats and being alert is the challenge for the users.
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