Google reports 18M coronavirus-related malware and phishing emails being sent daily

Google saw more than 18 million malware and phishing emails related to the novel coronavirus on its service per day last week, the company revealed Thursday.

That figure is in addition to the nearly 240 million coronavirus-related daily spam messages it sees.

The malware and phishing attacks on Gmail “use both fear and financial incentives to create urgency to try to prompt users to respond,” the company said in a blog post.

Google shared examples of scammers posing as the World Health Organization (WHO) to “solicit fraudulent donations or distribute malware,” as administrators targeting employees working from home and as government agents trying to get information to process stimulus checks.

The company says its machine learning software has been able to “block more than 99.9% of spam, phishing, and malware.”

Google has also worked with the WHO to make it harder for scammers to impersonate its domain.

The company recommends that users avoid downloading files they don’t recognize, check URLs before providing login info and avoid phishing emails.