Gmail, through Andy Wen, Senior Director of Product- Workspace Security and Compliance at Google, on Thursday, December 19, raised alarm over increased levels of scams during the holiday season cautioning users to stay on high alert over the various types of scams witnessed on the site during this period.
Gmail, which is the world’s largest email provider with 2.5 billion users, stated that since mid-November, they had experienced a surge in attacks on the safety and security of email addresses the world over noting that this was set to continue at an increased rate.
“Every year, scammers go into overdrive during the holiday season, using all kinds of tactics to get your attention. Since mid-November, we’ve seen a massive surge in email traffic compared to previous months, making protecting inboxes an even greater challenge than normal,” noted Wen in the advisory.
The online mail service provider noted that during the Christmas period, scammers resort to different ways to scam unsuspecting users and called upon users to stay vigilant and report any suspicious emails as “spam” or “phishing.”
To that effect, Gmail listed four ways that users could avert the efforts of scammers and enhance their own security.
Whether it’s during the holidays or otherwise, users should follow these golden rules:
- Slow it down. Scams are often designed to create a sense of urgency, and often use terms like “urgent, immediate, deactivate, unauthorized, etc.” Take time to ask questions and think it through.
- Spot check. Do your research to double-check the details of an email. Does what it’s saying make sense? Can you validate the email address of the sender?
- Stop! Don’t send. No reputable person or agency will ever demand payment or your personal information on the spot.
- Report it. If you see something suspicious, mark it as spam. You’ll be making your Inbox cleaner and helping billions of others too.
At the same time, Gmail was quick to reassure users that they had done due diligence and developed robust security features and technology that have significantly helped in combating the scams.
“Thanks to new Gmail security features we launched over the past year, users reported 35% fewer scams (phishing, malware, etc.) hitting inboxes during the first month of the holiday season compared to last year. Millions more unwanted and potentially dangerous messages were blocked before they even reached inboxes,” Gmail noted.
Detailing their new features, Gmail stated that they had developed several “ground-breaking” AI models that significantly strengthened Gmail cyber-defenses, including a new large language model (LLM) that was trained on phishing, malware, and spam.
“By spotting patterns and responding rapidly, this LLM alone blocks 20% more spam than before and reviews 1,000 times more user-reported spam daily,” they stated.
The mail service provider added that another AI model that went in use before the Black Friday period was delivering positive results during the Christmas season.
“This new model acts like a supervisor for our existing AI defenses by instantly evaluating hundreds of threat signals when a risky message is flagged and deploying the appropriate protections — all in the blink of an eye,” Gmail asserted.
Gmail went on to shed light on the three commonly witnessed scams during the festive period in an attempt to familiarise their users with the same.
First on the list was invoice scams which involve scammers sending fake invoices to unsuspecting users, typically trying to solicit phone calls to dispute the “charges” and using this connection as a way to convince victims to pay them is one of the most common types of scams seen during this period.
Secondly, Gmail noted celebrity scams which involved scams popping up referencing famous people, either pretending to come from the celebrity themself or claiming a given celebrity is endorsing a random product. They added that the goal of such scams was to use the association to build trust and trick people into engaging with “too good to be true” scenarios.
The third common scam was extortion scams which are normally vicious and scary as victims receive emails with details on their home address, sometimes even including a picture of the location accompanied by threats of physical harm or threats of releasing damaging personal material they say they acquired through a hack.
Gmail urged their users to take note of the scams and incorporate the recommended measures adding that the threat to their cyber security was prevalent in other Google products, not only in Gmail.
