Google blocking 18m coronavirus scam emails every day

The tech giant, Google, says that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an explosion scam and phishing attacks in which criminals try to trick users into revealing personal data. 

According to Google, Scammers are sending 18 million hoax emails about COVID-19 to Gmail users every day. The company said it was blocking more than 100 million phishing emails a day, almost a fifth of which were scam emails related to coronavirus. 

Individuals are being sent a huge variety of emails which impersonate authorities, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), in an effort to persuade victims to download software or donate to bogus causes. The virus may now be the biggest phishing topic ever, tech firms say. 

Google claims that its machine-learning tools are able to block more than 99.9% of emails from reaching its users. Google's Gmail is used by 1.5 billion people.