Google released a study last week that shows email scams are still rampant and effective, a surprising discovery considering the years of warnings about such phishing scams.

An overwhelming 45 percent of Internet users are still clicking on links which ask for an email and login information within an email, Gizmodo reported.

The tech giant conducted a study in collaboration with the University of California to assess the habits of the users, as well as find out the origin of some of the scams.

Google said it has addressed one of the biggest fears in the U.S. -- Internet attacks -- which rank higher than home invasions, and that the company has successfully removed 99 percent of hijackings.

The study revealed that a majority of these "bad actors" reside in five countries: China, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Some of the rarest but more dangerous kinds of scams are when the exploiter targets a specific victim by spending time and effort into duping the victim into revealing their username, password and other personal information, Google reported.

At least 20 percent of the scams involve a hijacker successfully gaining access to the email account, then changing the password to lock out the true owner, and spending on average 20 or more minutes searching for and gaining access to other accounts, Google reported.

After gaining access, these hijackers may sometimes target family and friends from the address book and, as a result, gain new victims.

A majority of these phishing scams use web pages that are familiar to the individual -- such as banks, social media sites and other frequently visited accounts.

Using a phone number or secondary email was the most effective way of regaining control of a hijacked account, the study showed, which helped Google promote their various services that align with those channels.