Monday, July 20, 2009

Google/Gmail Users Beware of Phishing Scams



I just got an "official-looking" email this morning supposedly from Google. The address was customer verification (verifycustomercare400@gmail). 

For someone who is not yet used to dealing with spam and phishing emails, he/she might fall for the trap and innocently send his/her Google password to the given addresses. DON'T!!! Doing so would allow the hackers to get inside your email account and other Google services you signed up with like Blogger, Adsense, etc. 

image from freepik.com

Pretty soon, your contacts might receive emails such as those circulating sent by hacked Yahoo accounts telling friends and family to "Please send money via Western Union because I have been robbed and stranded in so-and-so country." 

Be very careful when you receive emails that ask for your passwords! Google will never ask for yours especially coming from a standard gmail address. DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS IN EMAILS LIKE THIS! I would hate to see my friends or family members lured into this kind of dirty trick. See what the email looks like:

DEAR GOOGLE ACCOUNT USER Sun Jul 19 7:30pm – 8:30pm (Timezone: Hawaii Time) Calendar: (my name) Owner/Creator: verifycustomercare400@gmail.com This Email is from G mail Customer Care and we are sending it to every G mail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestion due to the anonymous registration of G mail accounts so we are shutting down some G mail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted.We are sending you this email so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account.If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name,password,date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account. Due to the congestion in all G mail users and removal of all unused G mail Accounts, G mail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Log in Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons. * User name: * Password: * Date of Birth: * Country Or Territory: After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences. Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently send back your information to the two addresses for further verification to help your account not to be deleted verifycustomercare400@gmail.com and customer.alternate@googlemail.com More event details» Will you attend? Yes |Maybe |No


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