Google is warning the public to stay on guard against COVID-19 emails that actually contain malware. Last week, the company’s Gmail service blocked about 18 million malware and phishing emails per day.
“This is in addition to more than 240 million COVID-related daily spam messages,” Google product managers disclosed on Thursday.
The messages are designed to exploit the public’s fears around the pandemic. According to Google, cybercriminals have been creating fake emails that pretend to be the World Health Organization and ask for donations. However, the same emails are also designed to trick you into downloading a malicious file to take over your computer.
Other emails can pose as your company’s IT staff to manipulate you into visiting a malicious link concerning COVID-19 and its effect on payroll. The cybercriminals are also creating schemes around the economic stimulus checks small businesses have been receiving from the US government. In the example below, you can see they attached a malicious .htm file to an email concerning COVID-19 payment.
