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A new type of fraud is threatening Gmail account users around the world. Even a Microsoft employee almost became a victim.
Today, hardly anyone can ignore an email account. Gmail is particularly popular – Google’s mail service is used by a total of 1.8 billion people. These users should currently be particularly vigilant in order not to the target of a sophisticated fraud scheme to become. A Microsoft employee warned against this method because he almost fell for it himself.
A Microsoft employee almost fell victim to the sophisticated scam – and is now raising the alarm. © Jaque Silva/SOPA Images/IMAGO
Urgent warning about perfidious fraud – even Microsoft employees were not immune
A Microsoft employee, Sam Mitrovic, received an email asking him to confirm an attempt to restore his Gmail account. At first, this seemed like a common online fraud method. He ignored the message and the call that followed shortly afterwards. A week later the whole thing happened again. This time too he did not confirm the account recovery as he had not initiated anything of the sort. However, Mitrovic answered the call.
“It’s an American voice, very polite and professional. He introduces himself and says there is suspicious activity on my account,” he wrote in one Blog post. The alleged Google employee asked him whether he was currently traveling and whether he had recently logged into his Gmail account from Germany. Mitrovic denied both.
There are crooks in many corners, not just on the Internet or on the telephone. Even on vacation, treacherous scams are not far away.
Gmail scam is designed to trick users into rash actions
Then came the shock: According to the caller, someone else had had access to his email account for a week and had already downloaded account information. Fraudsters use such methods to try to lure their victims into rash actions. A method that works often enough.
Even if, like the Microsoft employee, you had googled the phone number, you might have felt safe because it was actually on an official one Google-Website can be found. However, this website refers to Google Assistant calls and the number is listed for Australia.
Unfortunately, it is not difficult to display fake caller numbers, Mitrovic said in his blog post. The same goes for spoofing the email sender. The Criminals also often pose as relativeswhich was almost fatal for a family.
Gmail scam – AI voice almost duped Microsoft employees
Mitrovic now became very suspicious and asked the caller to send him an email as a security measure. He received this email shortly afterwards, but from a domain that is not affiliated with Google. Now it was clear: it was an attempted fraud. He also noted that he wasn’t talking to a real person: “I took it as TO-Voice recognized because the pronunciation and spacing were too perfect.”
A typical WhatsApp history of a scam
He suspects that the call was intended to get him to agree to the account recovery initiated by the scammers. In this way, the fraudsters would have gained access to his Gmail account.
It cannot be said with certainty whether this AI fraud has already come to Germany. However, it is not uncommon for fraud methods to be adopted one-to-one for other languages and countries. Gmail users should definitely be vigilant and educate themselves on how phishing attempts can be exposed. (sp/jm)
