Google Docs Phishing Scam: What to Know Before You Open That E-Mail

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A Google Doc phishing scam has been taken care of by Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG,GOOGL) shortly after is started.

Google Docs Phishing Scam: What to Know Before You Open That E-Mail

The Google Doc phishing scam worked by asking users to approve access to Google Docs. It did this by sending an email through one of their known contacts. This email looked the same as the official email for sharing documents between the service.

The Google Docs that wants access isn’t actually the service ran by Alphabet Inc. Instead, it seeks permission to take control of the person’s account. After this it can send emails to their contacts to help it spread.

It didn’t take long for Google to catch wind of the Google Docs phishing scam and bring an end to it. Roughly one hour after the company learned of the problem, it was resolved. Users that have given access to the fake Docs program may check their third party apps to see if it still has access to their accounts. If so, they will want to remove that permission. However, Google says users shouldn’t need to do this.

“We have taken action to protect users against an email spam campaign impersonating Google Docs, which affected fewer than 0.1 percent of Gmail users,” Google said in a statement. “We protected users from this attack through a combination of automatic and manual actions, including removing the fake pages and applications, and pushing updates through Safe Browsing, Gmail, and other anti-abuse systems.”

Scammers are becoming more clever lately and making emails look official is a problem. A Gmail phishing scam earlier this year used similar tactics to try and fool users into giving up their information.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/05/google-docs-phishing/.

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