Gmail has been compromised by hackers; we need to call to verify ID
Complaint
Maria
Country: United States
On 3/15/13, I received a random text message from phone number 651-347-6596 stating: "Google Message #_ _ _ _ _: Your Gmail has been compromised by hackers. We need to call to verify your identity. Reply with 'READY' when you are ready to take the call." My suspicions were correct, and of course, I did not call back. Anyhow, being curious, I Googled the phone number and I'm glad I found your website warning others about this scammer number. I thought I'd also share my encounter with this scammer so others may be well informed and beware.
Comments
You can provide Google with a phone number they can text a message to if they do need to reliably verify your identity, but a message from Google would not direct you to call some number. They usually verify by having some online action you take trigger the text message, that in turn provides a key you can then enter back in response to an online identity verification challenge response pair. Alternatively, they could use it to notify you of a suspected security breach, in which case you could go online to resecure your account, maybe with a new password, and with your legitimate identity verified as above.
You should NEVER respond to any phone call, text message, or email, by responding through the communications channel directed in the call or message. You cannot verify any communications to the degree of reliability necessary to trust the message. That is what opens these channels up for spoofing in phishing scams.
Always only communicate via vierifiable channels, for example, a bank's phone number from your statements or credit card.
It came from number: 409-210-1836
I did not respond and have since deleted the message. Figured it was a scam.
ID #xxxxx: Your Google Account has been hacked. Reply SEND CODE to take a call to reactivate your account.
But there is no activity in my gmail account with an different ip address other than my ip address