A Microsoft consultant exposed a scam that almost caused him to lose his Gmail account. Here's how...😱
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00:00A Microsoft consultant nearly fell victim to a super-realistic AI scam
00:04and exposed the scammer's tricks on his personal blog.
00:08Their target? Gmail users.
00:10Sam Mitrovich from Australia received a request for his Gmail account recovery from the US.
00:15After denying the request, he got a missed call with the caller ID as Google Sydney,
00:20but he ignored it at the time.
00:22A week later, he received another notification for Gmail account recovery,
00:26followed by a call, which he picked up this time.
00:28The caller introduced himself as a Google support representative.
00:32Sam said it was an American voice and the caller sounded very polite and professional.
00:37He said the caller asked him if he had logged into his account from Germany.
00:41When Sam denied, the caller told him that someone had access to his Gmail account
00:46and had downloaded his personal data.
00:48While Sam was still on the call, he googled the caller's number to see if it's credible.
00:52He found the caller's number linked to Google Workspace support.
00:56The caller then sent Sam an email from a Google domain, which looked legitimate.
01:00Even though everything looked authentic,
01:02Sam was suspicious and he soon realized that it was an AI-generated voice.
01:06He said, when the caller said hello, I ignored it then.
01:10About 10 seconds later, then said hello again.
01:13At this point, I realized it as an AI voice as the pronunciation and spacing were too perfect.
01:18He immediately hung up the call and started investigating.
01:21Sam first checked his Gmail account activity and found nothing unusual.
01:25He then examined the email headers and discovered that the scammers had used
01:29Salesforce CRM to spoof their address, as it enabled them to use any domain name.
01:35He also came across a Reddit user who received the same email.
01:38Sam shared his experience on his personal blog, warning others about the scam.
01:42Gmail has over 2.5 billion users across the globe.
01:45In 2023, India recorded over 79 million phishing attacks
01:49and over 80% of people had fallen victim to AI voice scams.
01:53Now, if scammers have access to your Gmail account,
01:56they can extract valuable information such as transaction details
02:00and password reset notifications, which can then be exploited for other malicious activities.
02:06According to Forbes, Google had partnered with Global Anti-Scam Alliance
02:10and DNS Research Federation to protect users' privacy.
02:13So what precautions can we take to avoid falling victim to such scams?
02:17First, enabling two-factor authentication.
02:19Using apps such as Truecaller to see if others have flagged the number as scam.
02:24Regularly checking Gmail activity.
02:26Updating security settings.
02:28Not using the same password for multiple services.
02:31And avoiding suspicious software.
02:33So if you fall victim to cybercrime,
02:35you can lodge an online complaint at the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal
02:39or dial the National Cybercrime Helpline number 1930.
02:43Another portal to file a cyberfraud complaint is cybercrime.gov.in
02:49you