Google users have reported receiving an email informing them that their account would be listed as inactive shortly.
The issue with the email is that many people report their accounts are used daily and on many devices. It’s possible that something is wrong with Google or that this is a phishing email. A phishing attack is a type of online fraud in which cyber criminals try to trick victims into giving personal information.
These attacks are commonly conducted via email. Scammers in this example use a fake email to fool users into believing that they must verify an account right away or it would be terminated.
Hackers behind such a phishing scam send emails saying that recipients must verify their email accounts, or they would be terminated within 48 hours. Users of Gmail are rarely affected by these scam emails since the service’s excellent spam filtering technology detects them quickly.
The complaints were made in a Google support forum, which has now been removed. More than 300 individuals “upvoted” the original posts, indicating that they faced a similar incident.
The user may be at once signed out of all Google applications and websites on all devices when the email is received. Then force them to try multiple logins as they move from device to device.
The consideration is whether this is a genuine Google email or a phishing attack that slipped past Gmail’s spam filter. Nothing in the email revealed it was a scam when it was inspected for malicious links or nefarious contact information. Google’s online help response indicated this to be an issue due to their Inactive Account Manager tool, and not a scam.
Inactive Google Accounts: What Happens to Them?
Google support said that an inactive account notice will not prevent access to Google apps or cause data loss. The email is not a phishing attempt to steal the user’s Google account login information, but appears to be a glitch in which Google wrongly marks some accounts as being inactive. This will alert a contact who is granted access to the ‘inactive’ account.
Once you know you won’t be using your Google account for a time. You can use Inactive Account Manager to alert and allow access to your trusted contacts. This is a useful tool for those who are reaching the end of their lives or who work in dangerous jobs. It might give you peace-of-mind knowing that your account will be handled if something happens.
Google notifies the user at least one month before the account becomes inactive. This implies that everyone who received this incorrect email should notify their authorised contact that an alert would be issued to them in approximately a month.
If you’re actively using your account, you can ignore the email warning that it will soon be inactive. You can go to myaccount.google.com/inactive to create your Inactive Account Manager.
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