Millions of Coronavirus Scam Emails Are Being Blocked by Google Everyday

Google has been actively fighting off scam emails related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the latest report says the tech giant is blocking around 100 million coronavirus scam emails per day. The coronavirus emails are phishing attacks launched by scammers to collect data such as personal information from unsuspecting individuals. After collecting the information, the information will be used to hack accounts or to steal identities to commit more fraud.

Explosion of Phishing Attacks

Criminals are getting more creative and can even send emails that may seem like regular emails from banks, government offices, and billing companies. The latest scam email trend is to use the coronavirus pandemic as the email’s header to get people to click on an email and provide the information the scammers are looking for in order to commit fraud. It is estimated that there could be hundreds of millions of scam emails per day and Google is able to filter or block 100 million per day to protect the 1.5 billion people who are users of Gmail service.

Impersonation of the World Health Organization

What is particularly alarming is how the phishing emails would impersonate authorities and health agencies. A huge number of such emails are impersonating the World Health Organization to persuade people to donate to bogus causes or to download malware. Some emails sent by the cyber criminals imitate government institutions to capitalize on government support packages.

The Fight Against Fraudulent Email

Google is currently using their machine learning tools to block coronavirus phishing emails and they’ve been successful at blocking more than 99.9% of the emails from reaching their users. With this said, the emails are still around and increased significantly. In fact, several cyber security companies are currently looking into this and report that they’ve seen a 667% increase in phishing emails since the pandemic started.

Exploitation of Legitimate Fears and Concerns

Fraudulent emails could be from anywhere. There are some that are pretending to be from the UK government, some from those who are pretending to be from the CDC or Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, some that claim to be from specific politicians or world leaders, and some that claim to be from the World Health Organization. A rule of thumb for ignoring such emails is that if you are not signed up for an email service from a specific sender, then it is unlikely that they would have your contact details to send you emails.

No matter how important an email sounds like, if it is asking you to provide personal information, to download something on your device, or to log-in at an app or a website that you haven’t heard of, simply report the email as fraud and do not open any links on it. Remember that cyber criminals are banking on confusion, fear, and other emotional responses to try to get people to do what they want when they are most vulnerable.

Have you provided your information to a possible phishing email or downloaded a fake COVID-19 tracker app? Contact us today.

Spotting Phishing Scams Related to COVID-19

Not even an economy-stopping pandemic will stop fraudsters. As more nations feel the grip of the increasing health crisis, scammers are taking full advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to send fake emails to people tricking hapless victims into clicking on malicious links or attachments and revealing their personal information.

COVID-19 Cyber Security Scam Alert

A COVID-19 phishing email looks like a normal email complete with authentic-looking logos and branding. They often use the World Health Organization’s branding or logos or use the same from other public or government health agencies. Know that phishing is not limited to email, as some fraudsters resort to calling Canadian homes with offers of fake laboratory testing or fraudulent requests for donations.

How to Avoid a COVID-19 Scam

Scammers will send emails that will attempt to get your personal information or install malware into your mobile device or computer. Some will look like a donation link designed to capture your credit card information. Take the following steps to avoid becoming a victim.

• Practice skepticism. No matter how authentic looking an email may be, try to be more skeptic and nitpick details in the email. If the email contains email addresses, toll-free numbers, or website links, you can double check by using a known email address, website, or email of the organization to avoid clicking on fake links and contacting the scammers directly. If you want to verify some information, know that the right information will be posted on your provincial health agency’s website or the Public Health Agency of Canada website.
• Always check the email address of the sender. Phishing emails use sender addresses or names that may look like the real thing, but if you hover on the sender’s name, the actual email doesn’t match the sender at all.
• Avoid clicking on attachments or links. Embedded links in phishing emails seem valid, but the address it links to is definitely not. If the link address seems suspicious or does not seem connected to the highlighted text, there is a big possibility that it is a phishing email. If there are any attachments that aren’t expected or seem out of place, it might be infected with malware.
• Be more vigilant. If an email is requesting for your financial information or personal data, that may be fake.
• Make sure that your devices are protected. Installing anti-spam, anti-malware, anti-virus, and anti-spyware software can seem like being too cautious but you’ll be happy that you have them for protection in case of a possible attack.

What to do with a Phishing Email

You can’t avoid receiving phishing emails because they are everywhere. What you can do is either report them or delete/block them. You can report the email to the organization being spoofed so that they can issue the necessary warnings for other people. By blocking or deleting the email, you can save yourself some wasted time and headache down the road.

Aside from checking the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre for a compiled list of COVID-19 scams, you can stay tuned in this blog for more news on COVID-19 fraud. You can also check the government of Canada approved information regarding COVID-19 at https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection.html.