Phishing with help from Google Docs

It’s child’s play to create a Google account, and use the Google Docs facility to host an online form. Maybe you’d want to use it to poll customers’ opinions, for instance.

But if you’re a scammer – you can equally use Google Docs to phish for passwords and sensitive information.

Here are a few email campaigns I saw spammed out today, attempting to trick users into handing over their confidential data.

In the first example, the email asks the recipient to confirm their email account details or risk having it shut down.

The message reads:

Confirm your e-mail account please enter your Mailbox Details by clicking the link below:
<LINK>
Failure to provide details correctly will result to immediate closure of your mailbox account from our database.

As you can see, the link points to a page on Google Docs…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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