Beware of AdWords Phishing Scam
Be on the lookout: I’ve been getting phishing e-mails that claim to be from Google AdWords lately.
If you get a message claiming to be from Google that asks you to update your billing information—especially if it’s addressed “Dear Google AdWords Customer!” or something similar—do not click on any links in the message. Here’s an example of what these messages contain:
Dear Google AdWords Customer!
In order to update your billing information, please sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com, and update your billing information. Your account will be reactivated as soon as you have entered your payment details. Your ads will show immediately if you decide to pay for clicks via credit or debit card. If you decide to pay by direct debit, we may need to receive your signed debit authorization before your ads start running, depending on your location. If you choose bank transfer, your ads will show as soon as we receive your first payment. (Payment options vary by location.) Thank you for choosing AdWords. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
What looks at first glance like a legitimate link to Google actually takes you to a completely different domain. If you want to confirm that your billing info is up to date, log into AdWords manually by typing the address into your browser.
You can find more details at Search Engine Roundtable. It looks like a lot of people have been getting this exact same message.
Comments (2 so far)
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Yeah, I got a ton of these at once to different email addresses. Only one actually got through; the rest were automatically marked as spam. But if they had not been auto-identified and I had not received so many at once, I would say they were rather convincing. I have to remember to always carefully check the actual link address, rather than what the text of the email says.
by Alicson on Apr 1, 12:38 pm