Sydney – Trying to contact Google security? Forget it, however important it is. I tried logging in to my Gmail account on IE9, and was told by Microsoft SmartScreen that the Google sign in was a bad site and logging in was “not recommended”.
It’s not totally out of the ballpark that the Google Accounts sign-in would be targeted at some point. I just copped a card-skimming scam, so I’m in no hurry to get any more brilliance on my computer right now. I eventually managed to log back in to my Gmail account on Firefox. The trouble is that account can’t access some things, and by now I was curious about the possibilities, so I rang Google. Instant phone menus and pre-recorded messaging, and no operator option, was what I got. That’s a long way short of ballpark. The probability of Google getting targeted by something is about 100%. So I didn’t feel like disregarding the warning, even though I’ve got accounts I need to access for business. I’ve seen dummy sites before, and they’re pretty hard to spot. There was no way I could guarantee I’d know a fake Google sign-in if I saw one, and these are business accounts. Which raises the question- How the hell do you contact Google with something important? I can understand that they may not want a deluge of calls, but surely a basic clearing space for people trying to warn them of a problem isn’t that unreasonable. Meanwhile, IE9 users around the world are going to get this message, and be locked out of their Google accounts unless they use other browsers. I’m doing this article to highlight the issues, because internet users are usually out of the loop in how to report problems or get answers when they need them. I’d strongly suggest Google looks hard at this issue, because us Google users are out of contact when there’s a real, major inconvenience and there’s no clear way of accessing help when you need it. It’s possible that the reports to Microsoft are malicious, a sort of sabotage effect. There have recently been reports of “typo” websites, used by malware operators to pick up misspelt email addresses, and apparently these things are raking in cash. It’s not at all unlikely that something as big as Google Accounts would be targeted for this reason, but it’s also another good reason not to disregard the warning and the possibilities, accurate or not. So, Google and Microsoft- Let’s hear it- What are you going to do about this situation? It’s absolutely useless to us users to have a situation where you’re effectively blocked from access, or have to access in the knowledge of a possibly serious risk. What are you going to do about it?
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