Phishing Google Adwords Account…
Dear Google AdWords Customer,
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 (different destination url) and update your payment information.
This is the first time I’m hearing about this, and one client, who recently opened an account with adwords, and outsourced the account to an SEM agency has fallen prey to this phishing mail. Landing pages have been changed, and hundreds of keywords were added to the account. Luckily, Google has stopped delivering ads after some time, as it has detected some kind of suspicious activities in the account. However, hundreds of dollars have already been drained out from the account…
This post comes as a warning to all new ppc advertisers… 
Sleep Aid Said,
June 10, 2008 @ 10:42 pm
That just sucks. Why do people have to prey upon other people. I wish white collar crime was handle more harshly so these kinds of things wouldn’t happen to good peopole
Chiropractic Websites Said,
June 12, 2008 @ 10:10 am
I am very new to PPC and have conducted one campaign for a client of mine but am now just about to set one up for myself so this was a good article to come across beforehand so thankyou for this.
Secret Affiliate Code Said,
June 14, 2008 @ 2:01 pm
I am sure Google will take precautions to this? I mean, we are taling Google…Right?
Webmasters Tips Said,
June 17, 2008 @ 8:50 am
Yes, such phishing emails can be big problem for the newbies. The easy advice for avoiding troubles is using Thunderbird (email client) because this program can detect if the link in the email differs from the landing page and warn the user.
JBO Said,
June 18, 2008 @ 8:27 am
Some of these are getting so convincing. I have contacted Google asking why they kept writing to me about an account balance
It was the same as you mentioned. The important this here is to hover over the url before you click and check you really are visiting Google.
Very bad news
search tool Said,
June 18, 2008 @ 11:56 pm
Google claims that they are able to correctly know almost immediately when a scam is on. The truth sadly is different. What Google could do would be to reimburse all monies lost as a result of a scam. Just a shame.
Prams Said,
June 19, 2008 @ 2:30 pm
I used to run adwords on my site and still get regular phising emails for adwords.
Thing is some of them, like the banks, paypal, adwords..etc, can be so good, it is totally understandable that people get fooled by these.
Ezhil Said,
June 19, 2008 @ 3:04 pm
Very true; phishing mails are created just like as if they are genuine mails, and anyone can get fooled at any time..
Mike Johnston Said,
June 21, 2008 @ 6:58 am
Wow, another wonderful scam to add to the ridiculous list of ongoing ones. First it was paypal, then the banks.. now google.
Mike
http://www.cmstester.com
Skip Said,
June 24, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
I had no idea this kind of stuff went on on the internet. I am shocked.
Make Money Online Said,
August 14, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
I haven’t heard of AdWords phishing but I’m not surprised. Free quality targeted traffic on another person’s dime. Thanks for the heads up though, I will be informing all my clients
Canadian hosting Said,
August 14, 2008 @ 7:40 pm
Thanks for the post, very informative and good to know. I try as little as possible clicking any link in an e-mail
Spanish SEO Said,
September 9, 2008 @ 7:41 pm
Do you happen to have a copy of the phising site? This is really scary and would love to have a copy to show it to our clients too.
Thanks for sharing this
Google SEO Tips Said,
September 23, 2008 @ 3:14 pm
Web based crime is definately on the increase, unsecure sites are also being hacked for people to add backlinks. Be vigilant and check your statistics regularly.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=833068