[Participant @chinomnso]

Scammers would always come up with novel ways to trick and deceive unsuspecting people. Very likely, you use Google, and if you are a language enthusiast like me, you would often use Google Translate. If so, watch out for this new phishing attempt.

Most phishing attempts with Google Translate often involve creating a clone of a website from which the hackers are trying to steal your data – it could be a login page on a well-known website. However, it is quite easy to spot: the URLs look fishy. If you’ve got sharp eyes, you would very easily notice that the URLs do not look anything like the pages.

Here’s how the trick works: You get an email stating that something has gone wrong with your Google account. They may say that someone is trying to access your account. They may then provide a link that is actually a malicious URL for you to click on. If you click it, you will be redirected through Google Translate to a page that looks like the Google login form.

Once you “login to Google” using the provided, your login details are submitted to a criminal behind the form. And with your login details in their hands, they can gain access to a lot of accounts, services and apps you use. To avoid falling into this trap, you have to be extra careful. Double-check emails that purport to come from reputable sources, or emails that purport to come from Google, asking you to update your account or fix account issues.

Look out for shady email addresses like [email protected] or [email protected]. Such email addresses are plainly spurious. And if the emails and the addresses from which they seem to have come are so good that you think they are through, when you click links in emails, be on the lookout for the translate.google.com. And don’t forget to enable two-factor authentication on all accounts that support it. That way, no one would gain access to your accounts simply by logging in.

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