Android developers beware: fake Google Play violation email is a scam looking to steal your password
Reports of phony Google Play emails being sent to Android developers as circulating around the web. We, at Phandroid, have also received one of these emails, little more than a phishing scam meant to steal developers’ console passwords. Ours says we have 7 days to respond to a Google Play Store violation (some devs are receiving 3-day emails) and comes from a “gooogle.com.de” address (with an extra “O”).
Once the link in the email is clicked, developers are taken to a site that looks very similar to the normal Developer Console. We have to admit, the wording in the email doesn’t feature the usual grammatical errors and is seemingly urgent enough that some developers might panic and miss it. Needless to say, avoid clicking or signing into anything from that email, lest you’d like your developer account compromised.
UPDATE: Google issues official e-mail to developers warning them of this phishing attack.
We are aware that some Google Play developers have received policy warnings from a fake Google account. The subject lines of the fraudulent emails include variations of “3-Day Notification of Google Play Developer Term Violation.” If you received an email with this subject line, please mark it as phishing and proceed to delete it without clicking on any links contained within it. Find out more about recognizing phishing emails here:https://support.google.com/acc
ounts/answer/75061. If you use Gmail, please report all phishing attempts by following these instructions: https://support.google.com/acc
ounts/answer/75061. As a general reminder, you should only enter your Google account password on the official Google sign-in page: https://accounts.google.com/. Also note that the official URL for the Google Play Developer Console is https://play.google.com/apps/p
ublish/. If you believe your account has been compromised, please follow these instructions: https://support.google.com/mai
l/answer/50270. Thanks,
The Google Play Support Team(c)2015 Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important information relating to your Google Play account.