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WARNING: Watch out for fake Finalist emails

If you received a Finalist, Runner-up, or Grand Prize Winner email yesterday, please make sure it is legitimate.

There have been spam/prank emails telling random students that they are Finalists, Runners-up, or Grand Prize Winners. At least one came from gci-support@sapo.pt.

How to tell a legitimate email from an illegitimate one:

  • Make sure it comes from codein-noreply@google.com, not any other address.
  • Make sure it has Google's address and a "mandatory service announcement" paragraph at the bottom.
  • Make sure there is a PDF certificate with your correct name attached.
  • Make sure there is no Google Docs document listed as an attachment. At least one of the spam messages had a Google Doc listing acceptable forms of school ID attached. Also, the document attached had last year's dates. The legitimate emails contain a link to a Google Docs document, but it is not an attachment. The document in the legitimate emails contains this year's dates.
  • Make sure there is no PS at the bottom. At least one spam message said "PS: In case you have yet to realize, this is a fake email to annoy you".

Unless the email you received fulfills all of the above conditions, it is extremely likely that it is spam.

If you have received a spam message, please disregard it. The legitimate emails from Google went out around 1:00 AM Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Also, don't feed the trolls! If you got a fake email, don't reply to it.

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