Google tips on how to avoid COVID-19 scams and other online risks

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Google recently weighed in online via Mark Risher, Senior Director for Account Security, Identity, and Abuse about the current online security COVID-19 situation. On Google’s side, Google Meet, GMail and Google Play Protect for example have mostly built-in automatic protections but there are a number of checkup tools to see if you’re safe or not and the advice on what to do about it. On our part, we’ve seen a marked increase in such scams.

The general advice is to be more aware in this current time as scammers and hackers are more prevalent during the MCO. Specifically, Google has noticed that there are now more impersonators of healthcare, government, banks and NGOs. There’s also a lot more fake sellers - miracle cures (no, there’s still no cure), overpriced COVID soap (cheap soap is just as effective) and so forth.

For more details, you can check out the infographic below or go to their recent blog post about it. There’s also a site for Families and for those who feel that they might be targeted there’s also Google’s Advanced Protection Program (check the video at the end).

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Here's the tips in one shot

Google's Advanced Protection Program