Gmail now blocking 18 million Coronavirus scams every day

A typical scam email, this one purporting to be from the UK tax office (HMRC)

According to Google, they’re blocking 18 million phishing emails related to the Coronavirus pandemic every day.

The number of total emails blocked on a daily basis, is over 100 million – with Covid 19 related attacks accounting for almost a fifth.

The virus, is now likely to be the biggest topic for all phishing emails.

According to Google, these emails can purport to be from many organisations, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Her Majesties Revenue & Customs (HMRC) plus many other organisations.

The main aim for all these emails, is to either get users to download bogus software, or attempt to log into a fake financial service website – such as tax or online banking.

Cyber-criminals are also trying to use Government backed assistance schemes to get users to enter their details into bogus Government websites.

Google claims that its machine-learning tools are able to block more than 99.9% of emails from reaching its users.

Barracuda Networks, a world leader in online security has said it had seen a 667% increase in malicious phishing emails during the pandemic.

Phishing attacks always look to incite an emotion that causes us to act faster or think less about our actions at that moment in time.

Covid 19 is a very emotional topic right now and criminals know this. They hope that the average person will click that link or reply to a message if they use that lure.

Independent security researcher David Johnson.

Some “genuine” services are anything but

Some security researchers, have also discovered malicious websites and apps – partly based on helpful resources. One such app has been advertised as a Coronavirus tracker – yet researchers have discovered ransomware embedded within the applications code.

Last week, the National Cyber Security Centre and the US Department of Homeland Security issued a joint advisory.

They said they had seen “an increasing number of malicious cyber-actors” that were “exploiting the current Covid-19 pandemic for their own objectives”.