The holiday season is a time when scams are most common, and online fraudsters are looking for opportunities to steal personal information. To ensure user safety, Google continues to upgrade Gmail security protection features to effectively block fraudulent emails. With the help of artificial intelligence, Gmail has made significant progress in identifying and blocking spam, and reminds users to be wary of three common fraud techniques: false invoice fraud, celebrity endorsement fraud, and extortion fraud, helping users improve their security awareness and avoid losses.
According to Google data, in the first month of the 2024 holiday season, the number of fraudulent emails received by Gmail users decreased by 35% year-on-year. This is due to the AI models developed by Google, especially the large language model (LLM) based on phishing, malware and spam training, which has greatly improved Gmail's defense capabilities. At the end of the article, Google also recommends users to be more vigilant, carefully check email details, operate with caution, and jointly maintain a network security environment.
The holiday season is a warm time for families to get together and exchange gifts, but it is also a time when online fraudsters are ready to steal personal information. In order to cope with this challenge, Google has continued to upgrade Gmail's security protection features this year, striving to intercept fraudulent emails before they reach users' inboxes.
According to a blog post published this week by Andy Wen, Google's senior director of product management, in the first month of the 2024 holiday season, the number of scam emails received by Gmail users dropped by 35% compared with the same period last year. Artificial intelligence plays an important role in this remarkable progress.
Google has developed a series of AI models to significantly improve Gmail's network security defense capabilities. One of the large language models (LLM) based on phishing, malware and spam training is particularly critical. This alone has enabled Gmail to review 1,000 times the number of user-reported spam messages every day and block 20% more spam messages than before.
Still, even the most advanced artificial intelligence can’t completely eliminate all spam. Google also shared three scams that occurred frequently during this year’s holiday season, reminding users to stay vigilant:
False invoice fraud: Scammers will send false invoices to users, induce users to call to "verify" the so-called "expenses", and persuade the victim to pay during the call. While this type of scam is not new, it is especially rampant during the holiday season.
Celebrity endorsement scams: A large number of scam emails that have appeared recently are related to celebrities. The emails are either sent impersonating the celebrity or claiming that a celebrity is endorsing a product. While these connections sometimes seem far-fetched, the aim is to use celebrity power to build trust and trick users into participating in pie-in-the-sky activities.
Blackmail and extortion scams: These scam emails are vile and scary in nature. Victims receive emails containing their home address and sometimes even photos of the house. The content of the emails often contains personal threats or threats to disclose private personal information allegedly obtained through hacking methods.
To protect their own security, Google recommends that users be vigilant about suspicious emails before clicking on links or performing actions, carefully checking email details for any abnormalities, not transferring money to unfamiliar people, and marking any suspicious emails as spam. This way, Gmail can better identify and block similar emails in the future.
All in all, Google has effectively reduced the threat of fraudulent emails through artificial intelligence technology, but users’ own vigilance is still crucial. I hope everyone will increase their security awareness and jointly resist online fraud.