Is This A Rip-off Attempt?

Factual Questions
1

I got the following in my G-mail account just now.

[quote]
Hi [redacted],

Your Google Account [my Gmail address} was just used to sign in from Internet Explorer on Windows.

[quote]
There’s a link to “Explore my Devices”, but I am not fool enough to click on it.

I assume this is a phishing attempt, but that’s my default assumption for anything I get.

Any chance this is legit?

Regards,
Shodan

2

Possibly legit.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/9C9jWx03Q8s

3

The traditional methods to detect spam are:

  1. Turn on the “show full headers” options of your email service and follow back to see where the email originated from–in this case from Google.
  2. Do a Google search for relevant language.
4

Log into your google account directly via security.google.com in a fresh browser window, and you should be able to tell whether there has really been any unusual activity on your account.

5

The only thing I have figured out is that the notice was of someone in Georgia who tried to do the login, and for some reason my default location before I log into Google News is the same place in Georgia.

Thanks for the feedback.

Regards,
Shodan

6

You can also look at the URL for the Explore my Devices link, usually by hovering over it or right-clicking and choosing Properties. If it’s not a Google domain, then it’s hinky. Beware of addresses that seem like they have “google” but it isn’t part of the root, like google . letmescamyou . com.

7

I’m using chrome. When I hover my pointer over a link, in the bottom right of the window, the url the link goes to will appear. In this instance, I’d expect a legitimate message from google would go to a google domain.

8

There are live Phishing attempts that use this ruse. It is reasonably clever in that you may get legitimate warnings - especially when you log in from a new device for the first time. Thus you get used to them being legit. I have received clearly fraudulent such emails - citing an account I do not actually have, but plausibly might, being logged into at a suspicious location.

9

Do you have two factor authentication set up on your Google account? If so you should have received a text with a verification code when the log in was attempted. If not, you might want to consider setting it up.

10

Did you use a different browser or different computer to log in to your account? I get these every so often when I do log in from a different computer or browser. I usually get it quite quickly too, like minutes after I log in. If that’s the case then I ignore it since I know I’ve just logged in.

I guess it’s possible that someone tried to log in as you, either by accident, or on purpose, and Google is letting you know.

11

When you log on to Google from a new device (like a different computer or a tablet you’ve never used before), Google sends out that notice automatically.

If you recently logged in from a new device, ignore the message.

If you haven’t there’s a chance someone has hacked your password. Change your password immediately. You may want to take further steps to alert Google what has happened.