Google was hit by a phishing scam on Wednesday, prompting the company to warn its roughly 1 billion Gmail users to watch out for an email asking them to open a file from Google Docs.
“We are investigating a phishing email that appears as Google Docs. We encourage you to not click through, & report as phishing within Gmail,” the company said in a tweet at 4:15 p.m.
We are investigating a phishing email that appears as Google Docs. We encourage you to not click through, & report as phishing within Gmail.
— Gmail (@gmail) May 3, 2017
Earlier in the day, Gmail users, including at the Washington Examiner, began receiving what looked to be legitimate messages asking them to open a file from Google Docs, which, once clicked, asks permission to gain access.
Phishing emails are messages coming from seemingly legitimate sources but are actually attempts to trick users into sharing their personal information. One invitation received by a Washington Examiner employee appeared to come from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The phishing scheme was widely reported by users on Twitter, who warned against opening the email.
Phishing (or malware) Google Doc links that appear to come from people you may know are going around. DELETE THE EMAIL. DON’T CLICK. pic.twitter.com/fSZcS7ljhu
— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) May 3, 2017
Google Docs later reported that it had taken action to protect users from the scam by disabling the “offending accounts.”
“We’ve removed the fake pages, pushed updates through Safe Browsing, and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again,” Google Docs said. “We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail.”
