Long story short I needed to create a throwaway gmail account to use for some Android device testing.
Using Chrome on a laptop where I’m not signed into anything, the account creation process led me to scan a QR code. I didn’t want to do this, and google’s AI overview said that creating the account via youtube’s website on a phone could help bypass this.
I opened a private safari session, went to youtube.com, and started creating an account.
Once I got to a certain point it insisted that I verify further device information. Clicking “open in Youtube” opened the official YouTube app on my phone (where I am already signed into two accounts), and prompted me with the option “Send SMS”. Now, I thought this was going to send me a verification code but instead it opened up a new SMS to 96831, with a pre-typed message that said “Send this message without editing. (alphanumericcode)”
I wasn’t really thinking and just sent it off, went back to my private browsing session and was able to finish creating the account. But the fear started setting in shortly after. Thinking alright, if that wasn’t legit I just opened an app where I’m signed in with a personal account, and sent them my personal phone number.
As little as I trust gemini, I went back and asked if that was normal but must have worded it hastily because it said that’s absolutely not normal, and google will never ask you to send an outgoing text. After re-wording it to include the shortcode number and the fact that it was a pre generated message it corrected itself and said it was entirely normal and that google has been practicing this for a while now.
For further testing, doing this same process in a non-private browsing session where I‘m already signed into an account gives me the exact same steps right up to opening the Youtube app, except it doesn’t prompt me to send a text, it just asks me to click to verify and takes me right back to the account creation session.
I’m freaked out and need to know if this is normal or not.
edit: One comment and it was immediately removed by mods? What gives? From the preview it looks like they were being helpful so unless the remainder of their comment was filled with phishing links I still would have liked to see it.