Google has identified three prevalent scams making the rounds that users should remain vigilant against.
Image: Lionel Bonaventure / AFP.
Every year, scammers go into overdrive during the holiday season, using all kinds of tactics to get your attention, according to Google.
Google has invested in keeping inboxes safe, blocking more than 99.9% of spam, phishing and malware in Gmail. These efforts are year-round, but become even more necessary during the holidays.
While Google has added protections to keep inboxes safe, it is equally important for you to stay vigilant and report any suspicious emails as spam or phishing.
Google has shared three scams in heavy use this holiday season:
Invoice scams
With this method, scammers send fake invoices to unsuspecting users trying to get them to make phone calls to dispute the “charges” and then using this connection as a way to convince victims to pay them. These scams are not new, but are persistent and prevalent this holiday season.
Celebrity scams
According to Google, over the past month, most of the scams reference famous people, either pretending to come from the celebrity or claiming a given celebrity is endorsing a random product.
The associations do not always make much sense, but the goal of this scam is to use the association to build trust and trick people into engaging with “too good to be true” scenarios.
Extortion scams
This type of scam is vicious and scary where victims will receive emails with details on their home address, sometimes even including a picture of the location.
There are a few different versions of the messages, however, they typically either include threats of physical harm or threats of releasing damaging personal material the scammers say were acquired through a hack.
Whether it’s during the holidays or otherwise, users should follow these golden rules to avoid falling victim to scammers.
- Slow it down: Scams are designed to create a sense of urgency, and will often use terms like “urgent, immediate, deactivate, unauthorised, etc.” Take time to ask questions and think things through.
- Spot check: Do your research and double-check the details of an email. Does what it’s saying make sense? Can you validate the email address of the sender?
- Don’t send: Keep in mind that 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. Doing this will make your Inbox cleaner and help others too.
In 2024, Google developed AI models that have strengthened the cyber defenses of Gmail including a new large language model (LLM) that is trained on phishing, malware and spam. The LLM blocks 20% more spam than before and reviews 1,000 times more user-reported spam daily.
Google also started using another AI model just before Black Friday that has had similarly promising results this holiday season.
The new model acts like a supervisor for Google's existing AI defenses by instantly evaluating hundreds of threat signals when a risky message is flagged and deploying the appropriate protections.
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