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Google Gmail Crack Down on Phishing

With so much spam out there, Google Gmail is stepping up its effort to stop spammers.  Google rejects emails that include restricted character combinations.

Google has introduced a tool to block spammers to getting to a Gmail accounts users box.  Google announced that it was adding spam filtering support to its email platform in an effort to stop scammers from sending misleading or phishing messages.

 

So how the newly introduced Google Gmail Spam filters work against Phishing?

The new filters deal letter that look similar from the Unicode Consortium.  This may allow spammers to fool people as many companies, apps and websites use Unicode standard icons so that characters work across platforms however some characters look identical such as the Latin and Cyrillic lowercase “a.”

 

Here is an example of how the filters help reduce spam:

Spammers and scammers exploit the “0”, “૦”, and “ο” as they look nearly identical to the letter “o”.

Now scammers can mix and match the character and attack unsuspecting victims.  Think about it as they can create some of the following emails such as “Sh0ppingSite” vs. “ShoppingSite” or even “MyBank” vs. “MyBɑnk”.  The combinations our countless.

 

Google is taking a firm position on this and claims that its new filters will block these combinations included in emails sent to Gmail users.  Google has now put the Unicode Consortium lists on a highly restricted status.

 

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