A new phishing email has been found that claims that victims have won 2.5 million dollars in a giveaway for being a faithful user of Google services. The scam comes in an email with the subject line of “Powered by Google” and states, “You have been selected a winner for using Google services.” To add legitimacy, the email states that it is being sent to the victim from a managing editor of UK & Ireland and vice president of people operations worldwide and on behalf of Larry Page, the CEO of Google. Recipients of this email found an attachment that was titled, “Official Winning Letter by Google and MasterCard visa 2019.pdf.” It goes on to state that the victim has won a Google Visa/Mastercard valued at 2.5 million dollars. To claim the prize the user must go to a site and fill out a claims form that is sent to the scammers. Follow up emails and sites will ask the victim for additional personal and financial information before their “prize” can be sent to them. This message is being sent from “[email protected].”
Analyst Notes
There are several indicators that should lead a user to distrust this email. First is the sender’s email address, [email protected], with the fact that alert is misspelled, and it is from a .org should immediately raise suspicion. Second is the “Vice-President of people operations worldwide” which is clearly a false title. Users are recommended to delete the email immediately as it is clearly a phishing scam.
