Email spam scam impersonates Google Docs

Beware of a suspicious email asking you to click on a Google Docs link. Rampant these days, especially targeting journalists, this can be a bait to hack your account.

According to a report in Fortune on Wednesday, the email is not actually from who it says it's from, but is instead a phishing email intended to trick you into clicking on the link.

The mails generally appear to have been sent by a friend, prompting one to click on them.

In case you click on the link, it would give the keys to your entire Gmail account to the hacker running the phishing campaign.

"We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonating Google Docs, and have disabled offending accounts. We've removed the fake pages, pushed updates through Safe Browsing, and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again," the report quoted Google as saying.

Google's counter-measures may curb the phishing attacks but the hackers have had enough time already to gather millions of email addresses through victims' contact list.

Google offers a two-factor authentication set up on Gmail that adds an extra layer of security to the users' accounts.

This extra-security layer would ensure that even if hackers got your password, they would not be able to use it.

Google said they were able to stop the phishing campaign within approximately one hour.

"While contact information was accessed and used by the campaign, our investigations show that no other data was exposed. There's no further action users need to take regarding this event; users who want to review third party apps connected to their account can visit Google Security Checkup," Google added.

--IANS

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