Google Talk phishing scam follows Gmail outage

by Stevie Smith - Feb 25 2009, 17:00

As we approach the middle of the week, it’s highly likely that online search behemoth Google is crossing its fingers and hoping that Thursday and Friday don’t dawn alongside yet more unwanted service intrusions.

Having already been hit by a mystery four-hour outage to its hugely popular Gmail client earlier this week, Google has also had to move quickly to stamp out a phishing scam that targeted users through Gmail’s embedded Google Talk chat application.

Hastily strapping on its hob-nailed boots, Google has promptly added ViddyHo.com to its blacklist and branded it as “malicious” in its search results after Google Talk users began receiving scam messages purportedly emanating from approved chat friends.

According to Google, the individual messages contained a URL link that, if clicked in good faith by the unwitting recipient, would take the user to an outside Web page requiring the disclosure of their login name and accompanying password.

Those providing that personal information in the belief that the original message was legitimate then had their accounts hijacked and used to dispatch yet more scam messages to everyone on their contact list.

Despite blocking the link revealed through the Google Talk messages and flagging the domain as a phishing site for users of Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Google’s own Chrome browser, Google is advising that anyone who fell foul of the scam should change their passwords at the earliest possible opportunity.

A Google spokesperson has said the Gmail blackout and Google Talk phishing attack are unrelated incidents and that there have been no reports of the scam being implemented to accomplish anything more nefarious than spreading the message link to more users.

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