Massive Phishing Attack Targets Millions of Gmail Users

by Alex Johnson

An unusually sophisticated identity phishing campaign appeared to target Google's roughly 1 billion Gmail users worldwide, seeking to gain control of their entire email histories and spread itself to all of their contacts, Google confirmed Wednesday. 

The worm — which arrives in users' inboxes posing as an email from a trusted contact — asks you to check out an attached "Google Docs," or GDocs, file. Clicking on the link takes you to your real Google security profile, where you're asked to give permission for the fake app posing as GDocs to manage your email account.

To make matters worse, the worm also sends itself out to all of your contacts — Gmail or otherwise — reproducing itself hundreds of times any time a single user falls for it.

Google said in a statement late Wednesday afternoon that it had "disabled the offending accounts ... removed the fake pages [and] pushed updates through Safe Browsing." 

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Source: NBC News