The Google Docs Phishing Scam that was making rounds on the internet and also spreading wildly has been fixed by Google. Google mentioned on its Twitter account that they have taken action against the Google Docs phishing scam. According to this Twitter post, Google mentions that they have disabled the offending accounts. They have also removed the fake pages and pushed updates through Safe Browsing.
Google also ensured all its users through this Twitter post that spoofing like Google Docs phishing scam will be prevented in the future. Further, in case any user has mistakenly clicked on any fraudulent email, Google has asked to visit g.co/SecurityCheckup and remove the apps that they don’t recognize.
Meanwhile, Google has warned users not to click on Google Docs emails that look suspicious or the person who has shared any document with you is unknown to you.
Here’s the message from Google posted on Twitter:
What was the Google Docs Phishing Scam
Though Google has already fixed the Google Docs phishing scam, it is still important to know what the phishing scam was.
The Phishing scam was highly sophisticated and it almost replicated Google Docs interface. Typically, in this phishing scam, the user gets an invitation email about someone sharing a document with them on Google Docs. This looks very promising (with the only difference that you might not know this user).
Once you click on the link provided in the email, it takes you to the list of your Google accounts. You are asked to select the account so as to view the shared document/ file. When you select an account, the phishing page displays a message saying, ‘Google Docs would like to: Read, send, delete, and manage your email and Manage your contacts’.
As soon as you click the ‘Allow’ button, this fake Google Docs will have the permission to read/write/ manage your email as well as email your contacts. Thus, the cyber criminals who created Google Docs phishing scam will be able to spread worm through your email ID.
Thankfully, Google took an immediate action on this phishing scam. Hence, many users are now safe from this highly sophisticated Google Docs phishing scam. According to the latest statement from the Google team itself, they were able to fix this issue within an hour. The statement also mentions that less than 0.1% Gmail users were affected by this Google Docs phishing scam. Just to be sure that no other apps are installed on your Gmail, you can do a Security Checkup.
