Google issues new scam advisory.

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Google is a prime target for all types of threat actors. From a recently reported surge in attacks against Google Calendar users, an exploit that can be used to freeze the Google Chrome browser, and password stealers that are using a humanized approach tograb Android credentials. Now Google has issued an updated warning for Gmail, Google Messages and Google Play about six scams that every user needs to be aware of, alongside protections that are already in place to help prevent the worst from happening. Here’s what you need to know.

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Google’s Trust And Safety Teams Issue New Scams Advisory For All Users

“57% of adults experienced a scam in the past year, with 23% reporting money stolen,” Laurie Richardson, Google’s vice president of trust and safety, has confirmed in a new security advisory posting. The security and safety teams at Google have noted that scammers and threat actors are increasingly turning to AI tools to “efficiently scale and enhance their schemes.” The response has been to issue a new advisory, warning Google users of six scam trends to beware of, alongside details of the protections that Google has put in place within Gmail, Messages and Play to safeguard them from such attacks.

Before looking at the six scams that Google is alerting its users to, this seems like a great time to suggest that you take advantage of the inoculation theory-inspired security game that Google has made available, as it’s an excellent method of raising your own scam awareness game.

OK. So let’s take a look at some of the threats that Google users are being warned about, starting, appropriately enough, with an AI-inspired one.

“Cybercriminals are exploiting the widespread enthusiasm for AI tools by using it as a powerful social engineering lure,” Richardson said, creating “sophisticated scams impersonating popular AI services, promising free or exclusive access to ensnare victims.” Most often, these will come in the format of mobile and desktop apps or credential-stealing websites and browser extensions. Promotion, sadly, is through malicious ads, including what is known as cloaked malvertising, where scanners see harmless content, but users get the real and dangerous deal. “Google prohibits ads that distribute Malicious Software and enforces strict rules on Play and Chrome for apps and extension,’ Richardson said, with Google Play policies allowing for apps that mimic legitimate AI services to be proactively removed. Chrome, meanwhile, has a safe browsing enhanced mode, powered by AI, to provide real-time warnings to users.

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Then there are the seemingly never-ending online job scams, which, Google warns, are rising in number. “These campaigns involve impersonating well-known companies through detailed imitations of official career pages, fake recruiter profiles, and fraudulent government recruitment postings distributed via phishing emails and deceptive advertisements across a range of platforms,” Richardson said. Google offers protection by way of the scam detection function of Google Messages, Gmail’s automatic phishing and scam email detection and two-factor authentication to help secure accounts.

You can read all of the scam threat warnings in the Google advisory itself, and I suggest you do so. In the meantime, stay safe out there.