Google warns Gmail users against spam: Details on 5 major holiday scams

• The search engine said in a blogpost that it protects users from about 15 billion unwanted messages a day and blocks more than 99.9 percent of spam, phishing and malware.

Google is alerting Gmail users to five major scams and spam users are seeing this holiday season. The technology giant has alerted users to avoid gift card and gift-giving scams, donation fraud, demographic targeting attacks, membership renewal scams and crypto related fraud.

The search engine said in a blogpost that it protects users from about 15 billion unwanted messages a day and blocks more than 99.9 percent of spam, phishing and malware.

Google reports that gift card and novelty fraud is common during the peak holiday season. Fraudsters try to entice victims into purchasing a gift card, by pretending to be an accredited known contact or they offer a free gift in exchange for their credit card number.

Additionally, a gift that usually provides more than people expect could be a scam. Google also warns against phishing scams and charity fraud. These are harmful to both the victims of the scams and the charities that could benefit from genuine charities.

The company says, "Be on the lookout for identity-based malicious emails that may impersonate local parent-teacher association (PTA) board members or target certain age groups with fake emails."

In addition, Google warns that scams that involve subscription renewals may create fake antivirus services to lure victims with promises of greater protection.

To prevent such scams, users should always check the sender's email. If something appears to be false, it cannot be real.

Talking about crypto-oriented frauds, the company pointed out that they often come in the form of variations, one of which tries to extort money from the victim by threatening them.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Google is going to implement a performance improvement plan to gradually lay off 10,000 employees, suggest several media reports. The move is reportedly in response to pressure from an activist hedge fund, adverse market conditions and the need to reduce expenses. Employees who get low performance ratings will be let go.

The rating may also be used by the new performance system to prevent the granting of incentives and stock awards. Although Google has so far bucked the trend, it is projected to hire more than 135,000 white-collar workers in 2022 in the tech and startup sectors.