It seems that scammers have breached the security loophole. By tricking Google's servers, scammers are sending Gmail users genuine-looking security alert emails. The worst part is that, on a casual reading of the email, it seems to be legitimate, and the domain name from which the fake email is being sent looks genuine. That is why most people do not check the authenticity of the scammers' emails, and their mail gets compromised by the scammers.

Scammers are playing psychological games, and know how they work.

Scammers are playing psychological games with Gmail users. They scare the users so much that the thought of verifying that mail does not even come to the mind of the users. For example, see the pictures given below. This will give you an understanding of how scammers send fake emails to users and extract arbitrary data from them.

The email states that the government has sent a legal summons to Google LLC, and as per this legal summons, your entire Google account content, such as photos, emails, maps data, etc., needs to be handed over to the government. Note that the fake email does not say that the government is taking any legal action against you; rather, the fake email states that the government wants Google to give them your content and data. This is the main point of this fraud.

If you read this fraudulent email again, you will find a lot of unnecessary and fake information in it. Such as Google Account ID, support reference ID, etc. It also states that the legal summons has been given to Google LLC, not directly to you. This creates a belief in your mind that the legal action is not against you but against Google, which has been ordered to hand over your data and content to the government.

Google has admitted that this scam has happened and said that it has implemented security measures against this misuse of its system. Also, it has asked users to adopt two-factor verification and passkeys, which provide strong protection against such phishing.

How to avoid it

To avoid this, first of all you should look carefully at such emails. Do not take action after reading it for the first time. Wait for some time and read it again, you will start seeing mistakes in it. Before taking any step, definitely talk to your friends and cyber helpline.

Disclaimer: This content has been sourced and edited from News 18 hindi. While we have made modifications for clarity and presentation, the original content belongs to its respective authors and website. We do not claim ownership of the content.