There seems to be an increase in the number of internet scams being reported globally. This time, those nasty hackers are trying to get through to you by using the famous application, Google Docs.

For those who are a bit unfamiliar with Google Docs, the company provides basic office tools like Excel Spreadsheet, MS Word, and other applications for everyday use. Not only are these tools used by business officials, students also use it throughout their school year.

Alphabet Inc, the company behind Google and Google Docs have issued a warning to their users about this new scam. The company mentions that all users need to avoid opening ‘.Doc’  formatted documents or other documents from unknown contacts and E-mail IDs.

Those users who have opened those emails have had their social media accounts hacked! On Wednesday, May 3rd, Google has announced that the company have taken necessary steps to protect users from the attacks by disabling offending accounts and removing malicious pages.

“This is the future of phishing, it gets attackers to their goal … without having to go through the pain of putting malware on a device.”  -Aaron Higbee, Chief Technology Officer at PhishMe Inc. 

“This is a very serious situation for anybody who is infected because the victims have their accounts controlled by a malicious party,” – Justin Cappos, a Cyber Security Professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

Identifying Fake Documents

The fake Google notification doesn’t have box border formatting and address at the bottom. In addition to this users can expand the dropdown option in the menu bar next to the sender’s name. Below is a real Google notification for a shared Google Doc.

Stay tuned to Brandsyanrio for more news and updates.