Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Avoiding Gmail Spoofing and Phishing

The Latest Attempts in Gmail Account Spoofing and Phishing

typical gmail 'phishing' warning

First and foremost - Google will never ask you for any personal information. (As highlighted below in red)
If there is a problem with your gmail account, you will be prompted when you login. You may be required to re-verify your account using your phone number on file, which will result in an automated phone call with a pin number. This phone call will come immediately, and will show as Google in your caller ID.

Any other methods to obtain information about your google account are completely false ad are an attempt to spoof\phish your gmail or google account.

A typical google spoof\phishing attempt is below:

(this is a copy and paste of a typical gmail phishing attempt.) 


Dear User,

We are sorry to inform you that we are currently working on securing our server, during this process account which is not manually

verified by us will be deleted, Please confirm and submit your information for manual verification by one of our customer care.

Information which is to be provided is below:
User Name:
User Id:
Password:
Date Of Birth:
Country (At Sign up):

Upon confirmation of information from you, we will manually verify your Gmail! Account and reserve it not to be deleted, We are

sorry for any inconveniences this might have cause providing  your information over the email.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account

permanently.
______________________________________________________________________________

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