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GMAIL users should watch out for a new artificial-intelligence-powered scheme that could see your account compromised with the push of a button.
Tech experts have shared the scam and warned their followers that it’s “elaborate” and convincing.
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Garry Tan, the CEO of startup job board Y Combinator, said on X that he was nearly tricked after an AI voice claiming to be Google support called him.
The caller ID showed that Google was calling him, but the actual phone number didn’t match the tech company’s listing.
Tan answered the call and was told to confirm that he was alive, as a death certificate stated that a family member was trying to access his accounts.
He also received an alert on his phone about the account recovery and shared a screenshot of the message.
The message says a “device” named “Google Support: Sean Maraz” was trying to access his account.
The alert then gave him the option to click yes to allow the recovery or no to block it.
“It’s a pretty elaborate ploy to get you to allow password recovery,” Tan said.
“The dead giveaway is the ‘Device’ field.”
Tan urged his nearly 500,000 followers never to click yes on the pop-up, or they would be phished and called for Google to investigate the scheme.
“It’s trivial to check the device name for this,” he warned.
Another tech expert, Sam Mitrovich, warned of a similar account takeover scam that nearly tricked him despite his years of experience in cybersecurity.
Mitrovich got the same alert and call as Tan, but ignored them both as he could tell they were bogus, he wrote in his blog.
However, one week later, he got the alert again and a call followed soon after. He picked up the phone and spoke with an American who asked about Mitrovich’s travel history.
The caller then said Mitrovich’s account had been accessed in Germany, and was compromised for seven days.
Google’s list of signs someone is using your Gmail account
Google says: “If you notice any of these signs, someone else may be using your Google Account”…
- Unfamiliar changes to critical security settings
- Unauthorized financial activity
- Unusual activity notifications
Correct the setting immediately if you see unfamiliar changes to:
- Mail delegation: People with access to your Gmail
- Automatic mail forwarding
- Scheduled emails
- Your name in Gmail
- Automatic reply: Vacation responder
- Address on outgoing mail
- Blocked email addresses
- Remote access to your Gmail: IMAP or POP
- Filters that manage your incoming mail
- Labels that organize your incoming mail
Your Gmail activity might be suspicious if:
- You no longer receive emails.
- Your friends say they got spam or unusual emails from you.
- Your username has been changed.
- Your emails were deleted from your inbox and aren’t found in “Trash”. You can report missing emails and possibly recover them.
- You find “Sent Emails” that you didn’t write.
This immediately made the blogger nervous, as he remembered the alert he had ignored on the date his account was apparently compromised.
Mitrovich searched the phone number he was talking to and found that it led to Google’s landing page.
However, spoofing a phone number is common, so he asked the caller to email him with the details of his issue.
The blogger got the email and saw it was sent from a strange address – googlemail@internalcasetracking.com.
It was then he concluded the call was indeed from a scammer.
