Beware of the Gmail Phishing Scam

How a subtle phishing scam could hoodwink the most diligent of recipients

Today’s phishing techniques are smarter than before. Image by Alexander Geiger (via Shutterstock).

Hands up who has a Gmail account? With Google’s Gmail service being one of the world’s most popular email clients, it inevitably becomes a magnet for phishers. Many people access their Gmail accounts on their smartphones and tablets as well as desktop and laptop PCs. Wherever we access our messages, phishing remains an occupational hazard.

For many of us, phishing emails conjure up images of supposedly wealthy descendants of Far-Eastern royalty. Or they advertise hooky pharmaceuticals, preying on your insecurities (well, we’ll leave it at that). Some of us could be gullible enough to click the link and Hell breaks loose.

What if, from a mile off, you are convinced the email is genuine? At face value, the graphics might be accurate if they are impersonating your savings bank of choice. On further examination, you find the link leads to somewhere other than, for example, The Royal Bank or Clydesdale. The latest phishing scam to surface involves a phoney Google login box. If you look at this tweet below, on a low resolution monitor or tablet screen, it looks pretty realistic.

This is the closest I’ve ever come to falling for a Gmail phishing attack. If it hadn’t been for my high-DPI screen making the image fuzzy… pic.twitter.com/MizEWYksBh

— Tom Scott (@tomscott) 23 December 2016

Scarily realistic. Especially if you haven’t got a high-DPI monitor like this gentlemen. Not to be content with ignoring phishing emails and updating our software, we could be forced to update our monitors or tablet screens pretty soon!

Tread Carefully

As always, we at Tabard IT suggest ignoring such suspect emails and deleting them straight away. If you’re dealing with bank transfers (i.e. on your favourite online shopping site or an online banking service), look for the HTTPS padlock at the top left of your browser. This is seen inside the address bar. Most importantly, no legitimate business will ever ask you for your banking details via an email message.

Tabard IT, 17 March 2017.