Google Adwords Phishing Attempts
A word of Caution to Adwords Advertisers:
Recently, we have seen a notable increase in the number of what appears to be phishing (A.K.A spoofing) attempts targeting Google Adwords Accounts. These attempts mirror the same strategy that was used to steal account information from bank accounts; where the email appears to be from Google Adwords, yet the URL is a different variation to the Google Adwords link. Google does attempt to contact you through emails; however, should you receive an email alert, please look into your account through the user interface directly. A valid email from Google will include your Customer Identification Number (CID). Do not click on the email link and enter in your account information. For example, a recent email we received appeared as the following:
Dear Advertiser,
We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information.
Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your payment information.
We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.
The Google AdWords Team
This email on the surface appears to be legitimate; however, when looking at the email’s hyperlink we see the following destination URL: http://www.adwords.google.com.qwoid.cn/select/Login. When we checked, our Google Adwords accounts were perfectly fine.
Should you receive a similar email, Please do not click on the email. Instead opt to log-in to the user interface directly or call your Google Adwords Representative. Google recommends that you report the attempt to Google Adwords Support.