#gmail scam

🎧 Listen now as Lillian Cauldwell exposes the Silent Cookie Theft Gmail Scam in this eye-opening Scam DamNation episode, revealing how criminals can access Gmail accounts without passwords, alerts, or warning signs — and what you can do to protect yourself before it’s too late.  ▶️ Listen Here In today’s episode of Scam DamNation, Lillian Cauldwell alerts Gmail users to a growing danger known as…

🎧 Listen now as Lillian Cauldwell exposes the Silent Cookie Theft Gmail Scam in this eye-opening Scam DamNation episode, revealing how criminals can access Gmail accounts without passwords, alerts, or warning signs — and what you can do to protect yourself before it’s too late.  ▶️ Listen Here In today’s episode of Scam DamNation, Lillian Cauldwell alerts Gmail users to a growing danger known as…

Aakhir Tak – In Shorts A new AI scam is targeting Gmail users, tricking them into approving fake account recovery requests to steal personal data. This scam uses deceptive tactics to manipulate users. IT consultant Sam Mitrovic shares his encounter and insights on this fraudulent scheme. Aakhir Tak – In Depth A sophisticated scam has emerged targeting Gmail users, aiming to steal personal data…

This new Gmail phishing scam is tricking even tech-savvy users: Here’s the trick to detecting it

The security researchers at WordFencea popular developer of security tools have spotted what they call is a “highly effective” phishing scam that has been fooling Google Gmail customers in revealing their login details. The scam has reportedly been gaining popularity about users of the email service and consists of simple trick that even the most trained eyes will find it hard to notice. Upon…

This new Gmail phishing scam is deceiving even well informed clients: Here’s the secret to recognizing it

The security analysts at WordFence a famous designer of security instruments have spotted what they call is a “profoundly compelling” phishing scam that has been tricking Google Gmail clients in uncovering their login subtle elements. The scam has allegedly been picking up ubiquity about clients of the email administration and comprises of straightforward trap that even the most prepared eyes…

Sean Captain, Yahoo Technology, July 27, 2015

Billions of people trust Google to find information, manage their email, and store their documents. This makes Gmail and Google Drive the perfect tools for scammers who can abuse that trust to steal your personal information.

According to security firm Elastica, this is exactly what they’ve done. In a report released today, the company found that scammers had used Gmail to send emails designed to fool users into visiting a bogus website hosted on Google’s own servers. A hidden script on the Google Drive page captured their Google usernames and passwords, then redirected users to a genuine document (an academic paper) so victims would never suspect their information had been stolen.

Elastica hasn’t said how many people have been exposed to the online trap, or if it’s even able to gauge that. But regardless, this is a clever example of a so-called phishing attack that tricks you into giving up valuable personal information, typically your username and password. In this case, the email, titled simply “Document,” states, “Hi. Please see the remaining document on Google drive,” and then provides a long link to click on.

Once scammers have your Google credentials, they can log on to any service that uses your Google login, read your email, access personal files stored on Google Drive, reset the passwords to any other online service that has your Gmail address, and change your password so that you would be unable to log back in.

In other words, this is bad news. Fortunately, you can avoid falling prey to this scheme, and any similar, by abiding by the following guidelines.

Don’t trust any old email. Silly as it may sound, people often do mindlessly click on links in phishing emails, despite the frequently funky grammar and complete lack of relevance. One clever trick on the part of these likely cybercrooks is that the note comes from a Gmail address. This, according to Elastica, may have tricked Google’s spam filters into allowing the message to get through.

The takeaway: If you don’t recognize the sender of an email and have no idea what it’s about, for God’s sake, don’t click any links inside the message. People who did click this link still had another chance to escape, though the next step was far trickier.

Don’t casually provide usernames, passwords, or other info. Phishing attacks work because they send you to a bogus login page that looks like the real deal, though they’re usually hosted on a different URL than the legitimate site.

What makes this scam more sophisticated is that the link in this phishing email really does go to Google drive, where Google docs and other files are legitimately stored. However, the login page it shows visitors is a fake.

A careful look will reveal that something is fishy (or phishy). First, the scammers got the text wrong. Instead of, “One Account. All of Google,” the bogus page reads, “Google Drive. One Storage.”

How people can put so much work into creating an exploit and so little into proofreading is baffling. But it’s a good thing that crooks so often make these goofs.

Double check the Web address. Then there’s the classic mark of a phishing page: a crazy URL.

Instead of beginning with a nice, tight “https://accounts.google.com/,” the phishing page began with this gobbledygook: “https://c0ab3fcf375a…”

The lesson: If a link sends you to a login page, don’t fill it out. Open another browser window and type in what you know to be the correct page. For example, search for “Google Drive,” and follow that link. Log in there, instead. Also, again, beware of bad grammar.

Hidden code on the bogus page grabbed the login information and sent it to another server, not on Google Drive. Then it redirected the user to a legitimate, uninfected (if unexciting) document, a doctoral thesis from 2006 stored on the University of Maryland website.

Use Google’s two-factor authentication. If someone does happen to gain access to your Google credentials, either through phishing or by simply being a good guesser, two-factor authentication could be what stops them from actually getting into your account.

When you turn it on (and here’s how to do that), Google will require that not only a username and password be entered at login, but also a special code that will be text messaged to your phone. This system is being offered by more and more online services, and it’s really the best way you can prevent unwanted access to your accounts.

I just woke up not too long ago with a text message that went like this:

"Gmail #37658: Your account has been hacked. Reply to this message with --SENDNOW-- when you are able to reactivate your account."

First off, that's the most bullshit lazy as hell text I've ever gotten by someone who's trying to make themselves seem official;

Secondly, I know that unfortunately people fall for this.

If you get a text by "Google" or "Gmail" saying that your account has been compromised or that your account has been hacked, DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY. It's a scam for your account information and if given you really will get hacked.

There is no specific number in which you will receive the text from and the numbers cannot be tracked.

It's apparently a big problem since I'm not the only one who got this.