Scammers use AI to hack Gmail accounts, making it harder to counter such threats

It seems that fraudulent schemes based on artificial intelligence have become increasingly sophisticated and dangerous. Recently, a new wave of phishing has been observed, primarily targeting Gmail users.

Microsoft consultant Sam Mitrovic recently shared that he almost fell victim to a scam call. He initially received an email notification about a Gmail account recovery. He ignored it, but 40 minutes later, he received a call from someone claiming to be Google Support.

Over the phone, Sam Mitrovic was told that there had been unauthorized access to his account from Germany, and that the account had been used by malicious actors for a week. The voice had an American accent, and the number was indeed spoofed to match Google Support. Fortunately, the Microsoft consultant was able to recognize the scam in time.

Another similar incident happened to Y Combinator founder Garry Tan, who was told by scammers that a family member had provided a death certificate to recover his account.

In all these cases, the attackers used artificial intelligence to fake voices and impersonate Google Support. As neural networks evolve, it is expected that avoiding such scams will become increasingly difficult for users.

To counter these threats, Google has joined forces with the Global Anti-Fraud Alliance and the DNS Research Federation. Together, they have launched a special platform to share real-time fraud data. Additionally, Google is gradually enhancing profile security with additional authentication methods.