The fraudsters, who are looking for easy victims of fraud on the Internet, are sending one crore eight million emails every day to the Gmail users about the epidemic of covid-19. Technology company Google has informed that due to Corona virus epidemic, there has been a flood of ‘fishing attacks’ across the world.
‘Phishing’ is a method of fraud on the Internet, in which criminals try to get private information such as passwords, credit card details, by tricking users through email. Google said that he was blocking 100 million ‘fishing emails’ every day. During the last week, a fifth of these emails were only emails related to the Corona virus.
According to the company, it seems that this virus has become the biggest topic of ‘phishing’. One and a half billion people around the world use Google’s Gmail service.
Fraudsters are sending various types of emails to Gmail users. In which some emails are being sent in the name of organizations such as the World Health Organization so that ‘victim’ can be incited to download any software or it can be asked for some excuse.
These days, cyber criminals are also trying to take advantage of government institutions. Google claims that its artificial intelligence machines are capable of blocking 99.9% of such emails. Companies related to cyber security are also tracking ‘fishing emails’ being sent in the name of Corona virus.
Cyber security firm ‘Barracuda’ says that during the covid-19 epidemic there has been a jump of 667% in ‘fishing emails’ sent with the intention of forgery.
Such fraudsters are sending fake emails and SMS. It is claimed that these messages have been sent from the British Government, World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control and Prevention and even President Donald Trump.
Researchers have also found that fake websites and smartphone apps have come into existence in the name of giving information about corona virus. An unnaturally made Android app claims that it helps track the spread of the corona virus. However, upon downloading this app, the phone becomes a victim of ransomware (a program intended for extortion) and the user is asked for money to get the phone back to the previous state.
Last week, the British Agency National Cyber Security Center and the US Department of Homeland Security issued a joint advisory in this regard. It was said in the advisory that the number of cyber attacks has increased and criminals are taking advantage of the epidemic of covid-19 to get their aim.
