Google phishing net: How it can worm into your account

Did you recently receive an invitation to view a Google Document which appears to have come from one of your existing contacts? If yes, beware.

You may have just fallen prey to what IT experts across the world believe is a huge, startlingly fast-moving, and “almost undetectable” spam.

Since yesterday, hundreds of thousands of users have received an invitation from one of their existing contacts in form of a mail to view a Google document. When the user clicks on the link it takes him to a real Google-hosted page, with a ready list of your Google accounts to click.

Once a user clicks on an account, it asks you to allow account permissions to an app called "Google Docs". As soon as you press hit on "allow", the app can read all your emails.

Not only that. The app will soon start spreading the worm and shoot emails to all your contacts thereby setting the whole process in motion again.

Experts are perplexed as this "worm" is super sneaky.

But, there is a way to stop it. All one has to do is click on the small "Google Docs" link on the link page and going through the developer information - which in this case would appear unusual.

How do you know if you have already been phished?

You can go to your Google account and look for "App Permissions". Once there, try to find an app called Google Docs. If you cannot find such an app, you can you can sit back and relax.

However, if you find the app listed, do not worry. Just remove it by tapping the label and clicking on remove icon.

Google Docs' Twitter account confirmed the attack and said they are working on it. It warns users not to click on things for a while though.

We've addressed the issue with a phishing email claiming to be Google Docs. If you think you were affected, visit https://t.co/O68nQjFhBL. pic.twitter.com/AtlX6oNZaf

— Google Docs (@googledocs) May 3, 2017