Gmail fights fraud

It’s no secret that many hacking attacks begin with so-called social engineering, when an attacker gains the victim’s trust and forces them to open a malicious link or install a program. One way is to fraudulently post letters allegedly from the official mail of a company or organization. The e-mail addresses of such mailboxes are created as similar as possible and can differ by a single character that the target does not notice.

To reduce the number of such attacks, the service will start showing blue verification checks. So, for example, if you receive a letter from a fake Google, Binance or other companies and there is no sign next to their name, it means that the message came from scammers (of course if the companies want to verify themselves in the system).

Account verification will be based on Gmail’s existing Brand Indicators for Message ID (BIMI) feature. It requires companies to confirm the rights to use the brand logo and domain name. Companies that have already implemented BIMI will automatically receive a checkmark.

Google will add blue ticks to Gmail / Google Photos

Hovering the mouse cursor over the checkmark opens a window with a message that the sender has confirmed ownership of the domain name and profile picture.

Google believes that blue ticks will help both users and security systems detect spam and scammers, as well as allow senders to “enjoy trust in their brand.”