Gmail’s 2.5 billion users must be vigilant in the face of a new scam that could affect anyone, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and phishing. Criminals pretend to be Google’s support service in order to steal victims’ personal information and gain access to their accounts. Sam Mitrovic, Microsoft solutions consultant, gave details of this scam on his blog, reports the site Begeek Sunday October 13, 2024.
The attack begins with an email asking the user to validate an attempt to recover their Gmail account. If the person ignores this request, the hackers trigger another trap: a phone call that imitates Google customer service using an AI capable of perfectly reproducing the human voice.
Suspicious pauses
Sam Mitrovic says after declining a request to recover his Gmail account, he received a call from a number linked to Google Sydney a few minutes later. The consultant responded and found himself on the line with someone with an American accent who claimed to be taking action on suspicious activity on his account.
This hacking attempt is particularly worrying, because of its credibility. Scammers manipulate call masking technologies to appear official Google phone numbers. Additionally, the confirmation emails sent by these fake agents appear genuine at first glance, with addresses disguised to resemble those of the American company.
Yet despite its realism, the deception showed flaws. Sam Mitrovic noticed too perfect intonation and suspicious pauses between sentences. It was this detail in particular that confirmed to him that he was dealing with artificial intelligence. So he ended the communication.
