Gmail blocks 18 million malicious coronavirus emails PER DAY

We all know that crazy amounts of emails are sent around the world per day, with Gmail stopping a huge 18 million malware and phishing emails related to COVID-19 each and everyday.

This might sound like a lot, but it's nowhere near the number of emails that Google blocks from inboxes per day. This 18 million emails blocked for COVID-19 malware makes up around 20% of the total number of phishing emails that Gmail blocks each day, as over 100 million emails per day are blocked by Gmail.

Automated systems filter out another 240 million emails that are coronavirus-related spam, but there are some slipping through the cracks. But what are the phishing emails masquerading as? Well, some are impersonating the World Health Organization (WHO) asking people to donate to them in Bitcoin.

In a Google blog post, the search giant explains that not all of the COVID-19 malware and phishing emails are new, and that they are "existing malware campaigns that have simply been updated to exploit the heightened attention on COVID-19".

Google says that people are trying to capitalize on less security at home for those working from home at the moment, with Americans losing around $12 million to scammers and bad actors in this wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

You can read more on Google's blog post here.