Phishing scams focusing on crypto customers have grow to be extra superior, with attackers abusing Google’s infrastructure to conduct extremely convincing assaults.
On April 16, Nick Johnson, the founder and lead developer of Ethereum Identify Service (ENS), raised issues over a recent technique cybercriminals use to compromise Gmail accounts and probably goal related crypto wallets.
How phishing attackers are utilizing Google to their benefit
Based on Johnson, the attackers exploit a loophole in Google’s ecosystem that permits them to ship phishing emails that seem real safety alerts from the tech large itself.
These emails are signed with legitimate DomainKeys Recognized Mail (DKIM) signatures, enabling them to bypass spam filters and seem genuine to recipients.
As soon as opened, these emails direct customers to a counterfeit help portal hosted on a Google subdomain. This pretend web page prompts victims to log in and add delicate paperwork.
Nonetheless, Johnson warned that the attackers are doubtless harvesting credentials, which might compromise Gmail accounts and any companies linked to these emails.
The phishing websites are constructed utilizing Google’s Websites platform, which permits customized scripts and embedded content material.
Whereas this flexibility advantages reliable customers, it additionally permits malicious actors to create convincing phishing portals. Much more regarding is that there’s at the moment no technique to report abuse immediately by the Google Websites interface, making it simpler for attackers to maintain their content material on-line.
He mentioned:
“Google way back realised that internet hosting public, user-specified content material on google.com is a nasty thought, however Google Websites has caught round. IMO they should disable scrips and arbitrary embeds in Websites; that is too highly effective a phishing vector.”
To additional improve the phantasm of legitimacy, the scammers create a Google OAuth utility that codecs and shares the phishing message. These messages are at all times full with structured textual content and what seems to be contact info for Google Authorized Help.
Google’s response
Johnson reported that he submitted a bug report back to Google about this vulnerability.
Nonetheless, the search engine large reportedly said that the options work as meant and don’t represent a safety difficulty.
Johnson wrote:
“I’ve submitted a bug report back to Google about this; sadly they closed it as ‘Working as Meant’ and defined that they don’t contemplate it a safety bug.”
However, he urged Google to contemplate limiting script and embedding performance to assist forestall future abuse.
This incident highlights the rising sophistication of phishing campaigns throughout the crypto house. Based on Rip-off Sniffer, practically 6,000 customers misplaced round $6.37 million to phishing scams in March 2025 alone. Within the first quarter of the 12 months, 22,654 victims suffered whole losses of $21.94 million.
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