Summary
Bad actors are increasingly leveraging Google Forms as a vector for sending spam and sophisticated phishing emails. This tactic allows malicious messages to originate from Google's own trusted infrastructure, often leading to them bypassing standard email filters. This creates a significant challenge for email recipients and deliverability professionals, as the emails appear to be authenticated and legitimate, making them harder to detect by automated systems and human eyes alike.
Key findings
- Trust exploitation: Spammers exploit the inherent trust users have in Google's domains and services to deliver their malicious content.
- Authentication bypass: Emails sent via Google Forms often pass SPF and DKIM checks for Google's domains, making them appear legitimate.
- Filter evasion: This legitimate authentication can trick email services, including Gmail, into delivering malicious content directly to the inbox, as highlighted by a case where a sophisticated scam bypassed filters. (KrebsOnSecurity)
- Phishing conduit: Google Forms are frequently used for credential theft and distributing malware, often disguised as surveys or notifications.
- Volume attacks: Attackers can generate high volumes of spam using these legitimate services, making it a persistent problem. For more on this, read our article how to deal with spam from Google Forms.
Key considerations
- User education: Users must be trained to identify suspicious content, even when it appears to come from trusted senders or is properly authenticated.
- Advanced filtering: Mailbox providers need more sophisticated content-based filters that can look beyond authentication to detect malicious intent.
- Reporting abuse: Promptly reporting suspicious emails and forms to Google is crucial for mitigating these attacks.
- Beyond authentication: Understand that simply passing DMARC or SPF does not guarantee that email content is legitimate, especially when dealing with abused services. For more on this, check out our guide on why your emails go to spam.
What email marketers say
Email marketers and general users frequently encounter the misuse of Google Forms for spam and phishing. Their experiences highlight the surprise and frustration when seemingly legitimate emails, despite their malicious intent, bypass common spam filters and land in the inbox. This perspective often centers on the direct impact of these attacks on user trust and the practical challenges of combating them.
Key opinions
- Surprising inboxing: Many marketers express surprise when obvious phishing emails from Google Forms still inbox, suggesting a gap in content filtering.
- Authentication confusion: There's often confusion when malicious emails appear to be fully authenticated, which can disarm recipients.
- Content filter gaps: Marketers believe content filters aren't always effective against these types of attacks, especially if the email originates from a trusted service. For more insights into how bots use web forms, see our article why do bots submit web forms?.
- Human error: Users might misread or overlook subtle signs of phishing due to visual similarity and the perceived legitimacy of the sender.
- Brand reputation risk: Even if the attacks aren't from their own domain, the misuse of online forms can erode user trust in forms generally, affecting legitimate businesses.
Key considerations
- Vigilance required: Even with technical safeguards, human vigilance remains paramount in identifying and avoiding sophisticated phishing attempts.
- Reporting mechanisms: Knowing how to report such incidents effectively to service providers like Google is important for broader mitigation.
- Anti-spam measures: Marketers are advised to implement robust anti-spam measures on their own forms to prevent similar misuse of their platforms. Learn more about preventing spam on your forms from Nutshell's guide to combating form spam.
- Phishing awareness: Continuously educate subscribers about identifying phishing attempts and why Gmail might send mail to spam folders, even if they appear legitimate. Read our guide on why Gmail sends mail to spam folders.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks observes receiving a very obvious phishing email spoofing a Google notification that was still inboxed in Gmail. They noted that all authenticating domains appeared to be legit, making it difficult to detect.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks questions how bad actors could acquire such an obvious typo domain for malicious purposes, highlighting the surprising nature of the scam.
What the experts say
Experts in email deliverability and cybersecurity confirm that Google Forms are a known conduit for spam and phishing. They explain the technical nuances that allow these attacks to succeed, emphasizing the challenge of distinguishing legitimate infrastructure misuse from traditional email blacklist and blocklist spam. Their insights often focus on the methods of exploitation and the broader implications for email security.
Key opinions
- Legitimate infrastructure misuse: Bad actors exploit Google's trusted infrastructure, like Google Forms, to send spam, which inherently grants the emails a level of legitimacy.
- Quiz feature abuse: The "Release scores" feature in Google Forms quizzes has been specifically abused to deliver spam, as documented by Cisco Talos Blog.
- Credential theft: Google Forms are frequently leveraged to create fake login pages for stealing user credentials.
- BazarCall attacks: Sophisticated scams like BazarCall integrate Google Forms to enhance their appearance of legitimacy, making them more effective.
- Evolving tactics: Attackers constantly evolve their methods, including using legitimate Google services to bypass traditional email security measures.
Key considerations
- Behavioral analysis: Email security should increasingly focus on analyzing email content and user behavior patterns, rather than solely relying on authentication records.
- Threat intelligence sharing: Continued sharing of threat intelligence among security researchers and email providers is vital to identify new abuse vectors.
- Automated detection: There's a need for more sophisticated automated detection for malicious content and intent, even when emails come from trusted sources. This helps to identify spammers. Learn how to identify spammers.
- Layered security: Advocate for a layered approach to email security that goes beyond basic authentication like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Our simple guide to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM explains the basics.
Expert view
Expert from SpamResource comments on the growing trend of legitimate service abuse for spam. They suggest that this method leverages the inherent trust users place in well-known brands and their services.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise suggests that relying solely on email authentication protocols like SPF or DKIM is insufficient to combat sophisticated phishing attacks. These attacks often originate from legitimate infrastructure.
What the documentation says
Official documentation and security research often provide detailed accounts of how bad actors employ tactics when abusing platforms like Google Forms. These resources offer valuable insights into the technical vulnerabilities and specific strategies used for exploitation, as well as outlining recommended countermeasures and best practices for prevention.
Key findings
- Exploiting features: Malicious entities often exploit native features within Google Forms, such as quiz score release functions or comment sections, to deliver spam or phishing links.
- Credential harvesting: Ready-made design templates in Google Forms are frequently used to create fake login pages aimed at stealing payment or personal data.
- Automated submission: Bots are commonly used to submit large volumes of unwanted information through public-facing Google Forms, leading to form spam.
- Phishing link redirection: Emails originating from abused forms often contain links that redirect unsuspecting victims to external phishing websites. For more on this, check out our guide on an in-depth guide to email blocklists.
- Legitimacy facade: Abusing recognized and trusted services like Google Forms adds a significant layer of apparent legitimacy to scam emails, making them harder for recipients to identify.
Key considerations
- Implement CAPTCHA: Adding CAPTCHA or reCAPTCHA to public forms is a primary defense against automated bot submissions and spam.
- Monitor for abuse: Form creators should actively monitor submissions for unusual patterns or suspicious content that might indicate abuse. This is crucial for understanding the purposes of bots. Learn what are the purposes of bots.
- Security awareness: Educate end-users about identifying phishing attempts, even if they appear to originate from seemingly legitimate sources or services like Google Forms. For example, Sophos News explains phishing and malware actors.
- Platform-specific security: Utilize any security features or settings provided by the form platform itself, as these are designed to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
Technical article
Security Expert from DuoCircle notes that threat actors are actively exploiting Google Calendars for phishing attempts. These campaigns send fake meeting invitations that redirect invitees to malicious websites.
Technical article
Security Researcher from Cisco Talos Blog states that spammers are exploiting the "Release scores" feature of Google Forms quizzes to deliver email. These malicious emails surprisingly originate directly from Google's own servers.
Related resources
15 resources
Related pages
Why do bots and fake data submit web forms?
How to deal with spam from trix.bounces.google.com Google Forms?
Why is Gmail sending mail to spam folders?
Why is Google marking its own emails as dangerous?
What are the purposes of bots signing up for emails and accounts on websites?
Why Your Emails Are Going to Spam in 2024 and How to Fix It
An in-depth guide to email blocklists
How email blacklists actually work: a simple guide
Spam traps: what they are and how they work
A simple guide to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM
