It is via a new so-called phishing campaign that cybercriminals are trying to trick themselves into money and information from more than 500 million users of Google’s calendar.
The criminals try to strike with the help of email.
— It’s a very common way, says Fredrik Sandströmsecurity expert at the IT company Check Point Software, to TT.
Messages that appear to be sent from Google’s calendar contain a link or a calendar file that leads to, for example, Google Forms or Google Drawings. Once there, the user is prompted to click on another link which in turn ultimately leads to pages where the user is asked to complete a fake authentication process, enter personal information and provide payment details.
This is how you can protect yourself against fraudsters
Is it possible to protect oneself against this type of fraud? According to Fredrik Sandström, it can often be very difficult.
— Sometimes it can be very difficult to see if a link is genuine or not. And therefore you must have protection software, for example antivirus software or email protection, he says and continues:
— What you can think of is to look at the link and see if, for example, Google is spelled with one “O” or two “Gs”. But since many people use compressed links, it can also be difficult.
In a written comment to Check Point Software, Google says that one recommendation to avoid being scammed is to enable the “known senders” setting in the calendar. That setting helps make this type of phishing more difficult.