Should these emails become persistent, there’s actually an easy way to filter out these spam comments without affecting most incoming emails related to Google Docs and other Workspace apps, posted by Shulin Ye in the Gmail Help forum. Otherwise, simply delete and disregard the email. If you’ve received one of these emails, the most important thing is that you do not click on the attached link, as it redirects to a malicious destination that will likely attempt to steal your account information. Judging from multiple reports this month, and the fact that multiple members of the 9to5Google team received similar spam messages in the last few days, it seems that the spammers’ efforts may be ramping up. It seems that sometime this year - the earliest report we could find is from August - spammers realized that they could use Google Docs/Slides/etc comments to send any message to nearly any email address, and that the emails will come from a trusted sender, Google.

In these comments, you can also use followed by an email address to tag someone who you think needs to see that particular comment or portion of the Google Doc. When working on a document in Google Docs, Slides, or any other Google Workspace app, you can add comments to suggest changes or simply act as footnotes.

Have you received an email about a new comment in a Google Docs or other Google Workspace file you don’t recognize? Do not click the included link, as it’s likely part of a new source of spam emails that are abusing comments in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Google drive spam share