Google has announced that Gmail users will now be able to easily identify legal senders from scammers, as it will display a blue checkmark next to the sender’s name to confirm their identity. This function is based on the brand indicators existing in the Gmail system to identify messages (BIMI), which requires companies to confirm that the brand logo they use as their email avatar really belongs to them.
Companies that have already brought BIMI into operation will automatically receive a checkmark. The confirmation will show that “the sender of this email confirmed” that they own the domain and image of the profile used to send an email, by simply hovering the cursor over the checkmark. Google notes that email validation can help both users and security systems to identify and stop spam, a massive newsletter of unwanted messages. The share of spam in global postal traffic is about 80%, and the distribution proves beneficial to many companies as it involves a large coverage of potential customers.
Although the most common form of spam is electronic message newsletters, other types like unwanted instant messages, blog search spam, advertising spam, SMS-spam, spam on Internet forums, and social networks also exist. Attackers also use spam to carry out phishing fraud, wherein they attempt to access credit cards and passwords to user online payment systems. Such spam is usually sent in the form of an official message from the bank administration.