The latest Phishing scam hits Google Gmail. This email, which claims to be from “Google Support” warns the recipient that their Gmail account will be suspended within 24 hours “for security reasons” unless he or she confirms that the account is still active by replying to the email with account details.
The message is not from Google. It is a phishing scam designed to steal the recipient’s Gmail login details. If a recipient replies with the requested information, the scammer can then hijack the Gmail account and use it for further criminal activities.
If a recipient falls for the trick and sends the requested details, the criminals behind the scam will then be able to hijack their victim’s Gmail account and use it for their own nefarious purposes. Typically, these criminals use such hijacked accounts to launch further scams designed to trick contacts of the victim into sending them money. Once they have gained access to the hijacked account, the scammers will then send emails to all of the people on the account’s contact list. These emails will falsely claim that the account holder is in a very difficult situation and desperately needs financial assistance.
This also applies to other email services such as; Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.
Source: Hoax-Slayer
That’s actually a pretty good one considering Gmail does deactivate unused accounts. I’ve created two for domains that I hadn’t started yet, and when I went back to use them, they were gone and unavailable. I always go directly to Gmail if I get any kind of account verification needed emails like this, just in case.
Kristi,
Gmail along with other major online companies never send information such as this. Thanks for the feedback!
I’ve been getting similar hoax e-mails on my yahoo account for months.
You’d think the major e-mail service providers would be able to filter these out quicker.
John,
You would think Google would have security measures in place for this type of phishing scam. Maybe one day they will, hopefully soon.
Thanks for the warning!
Did Gmail flag this message as phishing with their big red message at the top? Maybe as word gets out about it, Google will get a filter in for this.
I haven’t received such emails (yet) though I certainly started to receive a lot of random spam on my Gmail account, which luckily all got sent straight to the Spam folder.
Brian,
Let’s hope Google figures out how to defend against such attacks in the very near future. They figured out everything else so far.
Will be looking out for this. Thanks again for the info.
Who falls for that stuff? Seriously. How long does it take google to find this stuff out?
This is quite insidious. Gmail has seemed to have some network issues for the first time in my memory lately and I could see how this might be very effective.
Zuk,
Hackers are capitalizing on Google’s shortcomings for sure.
@ first poster “That’s actually a pretty good one considering Gmail does deactivate unused accounts. I’ve created two for domains that I hadn’t started yet, and when I went back to use them, they were gone and unavailable. I always go directly to Gmail if I get any kind of account verification needed emails like this, just in case.”
This is weird, I’ve got an old Email I probably have not accessed for two years and a couple months ago I singed in and it was active – full of spam though.
About the message, I just do not understand why this kind of spam still works, every major service provider should make it everywhere explicitly mentioned that they never ask you for your password, you cannot blame Google really, what can they do? its the user’s fault if he falls for such lame methods.
Thanks,
Joe
perfect design thanks super site
Didn’t not receive this one up till now. Nearly got tricked by one that exactly looked like an Ebay email. It was about a product question and I was already typing my password when I noticed that the URL looks kinda weird. Close one.
People who get hit by this have, MOST OF THE TIME, made stupid choices. Don’t click on attachments that don’t go somewhere you recognize. NEVER give out your password. Don’t believe everything you read. So be careful!! Sometimes I don’t even dare to click on the shortened URL’s :-( who knows whatz in there…
Hope this helps…
Michelle
Michelle,
All good points and you should also be aware of what links are left in blog comments that go to sites that are new or suspect. ;)