Urgent Warning to Gmail Users; 12 Phrases That Should Be a Scammer Alert;
Refrigerator-sized machine makes gasoline out of thin air… and More!
Every day, we scan the tech world for interesting news, sometimes from outside the tech world. Every Thursday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Thursday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Urgent warning to billions of Gmail users over dangerous ‘no-reply’ attack
Recently received an email from ‘no-reply@accounts.google.com’?
A tech expert has broken down ‘clues’ within a sophisticated phishing email which has been sent to Gmail users from a ‘valid, signed email’.
Founder of Ethereum Name Service, Nick Johnson, took to Twitter last month to raise awareness of ‘an extremely sophisticated phishing attack’ explaining it ‘exploits a vulnerability in Google’s infrastructure’.
And given cybersecurity company Kaspersky shared an article about it last week, it would seem the attack is ongoing – UNILAD has contacted Google for comment.
Johnson took to Twitter on April 16 to share screenshots of the email he received, analysing the images explaining just how advanced the phishing attack is.
What does the ‘no-reply’ phishing email looks like?
The ‘first thing to note’? A ‘valid, signed email’.
“It really was sent from no-reply@google.com,” he explains. “It passes the DKIM signature check, and GMail displays it without any warnings – it even puts it in the same conversation as other, legitimate security alerts.”…
Scammer Alert: If Someone Calls You Using Any of These 12 Phrases You’re About To Be Scammed
In an era where phone scams are increasingly sophisticated and widespread, it’s crucial to stay vigilant. Scammers constantly refine their tactics, using specific phrases designed to trick unsuspecting individuals. This article identifies 12 common phrases that should immediately raise red flags for a scammer alert. However, awareness and other preventative measures can help protect you from falling victim to these deceitful tactics.
1. “This is an urgent public service announcement.”
When you hear this, your first reaction might be to listen closely and act quickly. Scammers use this phrase to create a sense of urgency, mimicking official alerts. The intentional use of this phrase causes people to bypass rational thinking and act without skepticism. But remember, genuine public services have other ways of getting in touch. Always double-check these alerts by contacting official sources through their verified channels.
2. “You have won a free vacation!”
It’s exciting to imagine vacations to sandy beaches and sunny skies, especially if it’s free. However, these offers…
Refrigerator-sized machine makes gasoline out of thin air
The Aircela acts like a mini direct air capture facility, sucking up carbon dioxide and then synthesizing it into real, usable gasoline for cars.
In 2022, transportation was responsible for an estimated 28 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The majority of those emissions came from everyday gas-powered cars. And while electric vehicles have been heralded as a greener alternative, decades of advocacy and hundreds of billions of dollars in investment have yielded meager results.
Today, electric cars make up just around 8 percent of all vehicles on U.S. roads. (Roughly 90 person of vehicles globally still run on fossil fuels.) Most EVs remain prohibitively expensive for the majority of Americans, and they require enormous amounts of critical minerals—resources that, when extracted at scale, pose their own environmental dilemmas. Most Americans also still just aren’t interested in ditching their gas guzzlers to save the planet.
But what if they didn’t have to?
That’s the alluring—if wildly ambitious—vision being presented by New York–based fuels startup Aircela…
Similar to how Microsoft continues to direct its efforts toward pushing users who refuse to upgrade to Windows 11, the Redmond-based giant also actively works on gradually removing legacy apps entirely or phasing them out and merging them with modern replacements. One such example is the Control Panel. In August 2024, Microsoft confirmed via a support document that the Control Panel is being deprecated and will be replaced by the Settings app, which was introduced alongside Windows 8.
Despite some Microsoft employees having hinted at the legacy tool’s eventual demise before, the company was quick to backtrack on its word and ended up updating the same support article, removing the bit about the Control Panel being deprecated in favor of the Settings app. It was then tweaked to say that many “Control Panel settings are in the process of being migrated to the Settings app.”
While we’re still unsure if the Control Panel will eventually be retired, what’s clear is that Microsoft’s on a mission to move its features to the Settings app…
I switched my search engine to DuckDuckGo, and it made Google better
I got tired of the AI and crud in Google, and finally switched away for primary text-based searches. To my surprise, this change suddenly made Google Discover useful to me again.
I’ve been trying to disentangle my online life from Google for a while. And as someone who wrote about Android professionally for years, it hasn’t been easy. I’ve ditched Chrome, but I still use a Samsung Galaxy phone and Google Pixel Watch, for example. But when I finally got off the big daddy, Google Search, and switched to DuckDuckGo, it had a surprising effect: Google got better.
That’s a broad statement, so let me be more particular right away. Switching to DuckDuckGo made parts of Google better, specifically Google Discover and Google News. And since I cover news for hours every morning as part of my job, that’s kind of a big deal for me.
No need for Incognito Mode
I’ll give you a scenario. I’m having a dinner with a friend, and they tell me that Sabrina Carpenter’s music video in an NYC church was scandalous. This is something I had no idea about, because I don’t follow pop music. But just for the sake of keeping the conversation going, I’d search (or as I would have said at the time, I’d Google) for something like “Sabrina Carpenter NYC church scandal.” If I’m being careful, I’d switch my browser over to Incognito/private mode first…because if I don’t, I’ll be seeing nothing but news about Sabrina Carpenter for the next few days in Google…
Thanks for reading this week’s Thursday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful.
Hopefully Emsisoft covers a lot of these attacks! But nothing is for sure except your own brain in a lot of cases.
Nora, no software can prevent you from being tricked. One can prevent it is you being informed and cautious and thinking before you click anything.
This is flat scary. My husband just died last week and I am getting a few emails from us gov. I’m afraid to open them.
I clicked on the savingadvice link above and Malwarebytes won’t let me go there. this is what it says
; Website blocked due to riskware
Website blocked: https://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2025/05/26/10136825_scammer-alert.html
v3.0.19 | Riskware: 2.0.202505311435
Malwarebytes Browser Guard blocked this page because it may contain malicious activity.
I know that sometimes Malwarebytes and other apps on my pc prevent me from going to sites I know are safe, but I thought I would let you know what came up when I clicked on the link
Now you know why we don’t recommend Malwarebytes and never have. SavingsAdvice.com offers a variety of content like financial articles, discussion forums, blogs, newsletters, and calculators. This suggests a focus on providing information to users.
It has been mentioned in other reputable sources like Muck Rack (a platform for journalists) and even has content appearing in search results from financial institutions or news sites discussing financial topics.
SavingsAdvice.com is a legitimate source for general personal finance information and advice.