Scammers are trying to trick you using the Google Drive notification

(Pocket-Lint) – They are not satisfied with getting you to click dodgy links via email and fill your inbox with spam. Scammers are now turning to Google Drive to catch you.

A useful system is built into Google Drive that notifies users when a document is shared with them or informs them of important activities in Drive.

This system sends both emails and push notifications to your phone to keep you updated. And it is precisely this system that scammers abuse to take advantage of unsuspecting users.

It’s an unfortunately smart scam as the notifications come from Google itself and can seem perfectly legitimate at first glance.

On your smartphone, the notifications appear like any other invitation from colleagues and other people that you invite to collaborate on a specific document. The difference is that when you click this link, you will be taken to a document with enticing links that will take you to shady websites.

Normally, this type of spam wouldn’t even get to your email inbox as it is usually only filtered into your spam folder, but these Google Drive notifications are sent through the system.

It seems that these scammers are exploiting this method and bombarding long lists of Gmail addresses with plenty of people reporting the problem. 

Wired reports that the linked documents are heavily edited and show signs that the scammers are duplicating their efforts to hit as many people as possible. 

Google told Wired that it has measures in place to detect these new sorts of scams but if users find themselves targeted then they can report the offending documents here. 

Writing by Adrian Willings.