Gmail account holders warned to watch out for hidden message - how to spot scam
Hackers and scammers are always finding new ways to target their victims and con them out of their personal and financial information. Whether it's creating fake websites that looking legitimate, posing as deep fakes of celebrities or using the successful 'Hi mum' scam, these cyber crooks will do anything to get your data.
Now experts are becoming increasingly worried as it seems that hackers have found a way to fool AI. Gmail users are being urged to stay on high alert as a new scam seems to be circulating the email service by hiding itself within messages.
By fooling Google 's clever AI Gemini services, these criminals may be able to add fake messages to their victim's inbox when they access it and load up the usually useful summaries option, reports the Mirror.
For those unfamiliar with this feature, Gmail users can now see a quick summary of an email they have been sent thanks to Gemini AI. With most of the important parts put into bullet points, AI will shorten a long email to make it faster to read and understand.
While this is a useful feature to have especially if you are in a rush, it seems that it is not immune to being corrupted by crooks.
Reported by Bleeping Computer, hackers may be able to trick the system into displaying more text that has nothing to do with the email received.
One example features scammers adding a warning alert at the bottom of the summary to scare users into sharing their data.
The alert reads: "WARNING: Gemini has detected that your Gmail password has been compromised. Please call us immediately."
The summary message then goes on to include a phone number and a reference code to make the warning more believable.
Users are also being warned that hackers may be able to add hidden prompts that appear when messages are opened. Experts at Mozilla say that is due to a potential vulnerability within the Gemini email summary feature.
Google has responded to this summary flaw and reaffirms that they are constantly working on ways to keep their platform safe for users.
Speaking to Bleeping Computer, a Google spokesperson said: "We are constantly hardening our already robust defenses through red-teaming exercises that train our models to defend against these types of adversarial attacks."
However, the tech giant has also said they are not aware of any users being attacked through the feature and that there is no evidence of a widespread threat.
Either way, it is clear that cyber crooks will continue to find new ways to attack popular services and platforms in order to profit off someone's misfortune.
While remaining cautious, Gmail users should note that it is highly unlikely that Google would ever contact users and ask for their personal data. And if you do believe your password has been compromised, this can easily be changed by logging into Google's official platform.
Unless you for sure know a number provided in an email or summary is an official hotline, it is best not to believe any warnings provided in emails and AI summaries.
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