Instagram's CEO Says He 'Experienced a Sophisticated Phishing Attack' With Google This Week The "Head of Instagram," Adam Mosseri, posted on Tuesday that the scheme came from "secure Google domains."
By Erin Davis Edited by Sherin Shibu
CEOs of Big Tech, they're just like us.
The Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, 42, says he was very close to being a victim of a well-played phishing scheme that involved some very real-looking "secure Google domains."
Mosseri wrote on Threads, which, like Instagram, is owned by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, said on Tuesday that he "experienced a sophisticated phishing attack yesterday."
Related: Mark Cuban's Google Account Was Hacked By 'Sophisticated' Bad Actors
Mosseri said he got a call from an 818 number (and he answered). The caller said that his "Google account was compromised, and they sent an email to confirm identity."
"On the phone, they asked me to change my password using my Gmail app and to *not* say my new password out loud. What was impressive was their email came from forms-receipts-noreply@google.com and linked to sites.google.com/view…, which of course asked me to sign in…," he continued.
"The email and the form both coming from secure Google domains (via Google products) might have got me if I hadn't heard from a friend who experienced a similar attack a year ago," he added. "Anybody know someone at Google that might want this context?"
Related: If Your Bank Is Calling, Don't Answer. It's Probably a Scam.
Threads users, of course, had a day in the comments. To start, many wondered how the top boss at Instagram doesn't know someone at Google. There were also a lot of jokes.
">sophisticated attack, >Google called me," one user replied.
"Adam, I can help you out here. Just need your mom's maiden name and the street you grew up on," another responded.
"Not the Head of Instagram believing Google calls you on the phone about resetting your password?" the comments continued.
Google Workspace's official Threads account thanked Mosseri for "flagging" and reminded him that the company will "never" call you.
Related: Andy Cohen Lost 'A Lot of Money' to a Highly Sophisticated Scam
"We suspended that form and site yesterday, and we constantly roll out defenses against these types of attacks. As a reminder: Google will never call you about your account," they wrote, adding a link to their "how to spot scams" blog.
Other users said it reminded them of a similar Google phishing scheme from 2022.
Still, with all the competition in Silicon Valley, we couldn't help but wonder: Do all executives at Meta use Gmail and Google's suite of products?
