Skip to main content

Google blocking 18 million scam emails related to coronavirus daily

 

It’s not just the coronavirus that’s creating havoc. Related scams and malware are causing trouble, too, with cybercriminals seemingly intent on taking advantage of what is already a dire situation for many folks.

Recommended Videos

Highlighting the extent of the problem, Google has revealed that on each day over the past week, its Gmail-linked computer systems detected — and blocked — 18 million malware and phishing emails related to the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.

On top of that, it also blocked more than than 240 million daily spam messages linked to the virus.

In an online post outlining the current situation, Neil Kumaran, a Gmail security product manager, claimed that Google’s machine-learning systems have become so good at detecting the online threats that it manages to block 99.9% of spam, phishing, and malware from reaching Gmail inboxes.

“The phishing attacks and scams we’re seeing use both fear and financial incentives to create urgency to try to prompt users to respond,” Kumaran noted in his post.

Citing several examples of how scammers will stop at nothing to trick innocent people into handing over cash, Kumaran explained how some are impersonating high-profile bodies such as the World Health Organization, which has been leading efforts to combat the pandemic. The perpetrators send the bogus emails to try to solicit fraudulent donations, or distribute malware, which, if downloaded, could give remote access to the victim’s computer or mobile device.

Some criminals are imitating government institutions in a bid to trick small businesses, while others are trying to exploit people working from home for the first time, sending emails pretending to be from “the admin department” and asking the recipient to click on a (dangerous) link.

The above is just a small sample of what is likely to be a myriad of creative approaches by criminals aiming to grab dollars or data (or both) from their victims. But as Kumaran points out in his post, these online threats are nothing new, “rather, they’re existing malware campaigns that have simply been updated to exploit the heightened attention on COVID-19.”

Although Gmail and other email platforms endeavor to catch these odious emails, you should still stay alert for such content, and always take extra care when it comes to downloading attachments or clicking on links.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
New AMD laptop GPUs have leaked, and Nvidia might be in trouble
A woman sits by a desk and plays a game on a laptop equipped with an AMD processor.

AMD has recently launched some of its best graphics cards for desktops, what with the arrival of the RX 9070 XT and the non-XT model -- but laptop gamers haven't had anything to look forward to. That might be about to change, as a new leak tells us that AMD is preparing a whopping six laptop GPUs, and that list includes an unexpected model.

The scoop comes from All The Watts on X (Twitter), who -- in their usual manner -- shared a rather cryptic message containing GPU specs. Each model is followed by an "M," indicating that this is the RX 9000 series for laptops, and it's actually bigger than the desktop lineup is so far. What's more, it's actually larger than the desktop lineup might ever be, seeing as that one is only supposed to get three new GPUs at some point.

Read more
Outlook typing lag will finally get a fix from Microsoft
A Dell laptop connected to a hard drive on a couch.

If you use classic Outlook to handle your emails, then you're most likely familiar with the annoying bug that causes huge CPU spikes while typing. It can be difficult to finish emails when your system resources jump by as much as 50 percent (and increase power usage with it), but Microsoft has finally announced that a fix is on the way. The downside? It won't arrive until late May for most users, although some might see it in early or mid May if they're part of the beta program. Until then, there is a workaround.

Rolling classic Outlook back to version 2405 seems to fix the issue, but it comes with a not-insignificant tradeoff. Updates since version 2405 have patched several security flaws, so if you opt to go this route, be aware that it opens your system to vulnerabilities.

Read more
YouTube’s AI Overviews want to make search results smarter
YouTube App

YouTube is experimenting with a new AI feature that could change how people find videos. Here's the kicker: not everyone is going to love it.

The platform has started rolling out AI-generated video summaries directly in search results, but only for a limited group of YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. For now, the AI Overviews are focused on things like product recommendations and travel ideas. They're meant to give quick highlights from multiple videos without making users look at each item they're interested in.

Read more