As the holiday season approaches, scammers are working overtime to exploit unsuspecting users. However, Google has been developing new features to combat these scams, resulting in a 35% decrease in reported phishing attempts during the first month of the holiday season compared to last year.
Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in stopping scams, with Gmail’s AI models significantly strengthening cyber-defenses. A new large language model trained on phishing, malware, and spam is able to block 20% more spam than before while reviewing 1,000 times more user-reported spam daily.
Despite these advancements, no solution can completely stop all spam from reaching inboxes. To help users avoid common holiday scams, Google has identified three types of threats:
Invoice scams: Fake invoices sent via email, often attempting to solicit phone calls or payments.
Celebrity scams: Scammers claiming association with famous people, using fake endorsements or celebrity impersonations to build trust and trick victims into engaging with “too good to be true” scenarios.
Extortion scams: Threats of physical harm or revealing sensitive personal information, including home addresses and photos.
To stay safe, Google recommends exercising caution when receiving suspicious emails, double-checking details for inaccuracies, not sending money to unknown individuals, and marking untrusted emails as spam.
Source: https://bgr.com/tech/gmail-is-using-new-ai-models-to-keep-spam-and-scams-out-of-your-inbox