11/08
2008
More Google AdWords Phishing Emails (7,551 views)
How to protect yourself?
Be watchful.
Don’t just click on any link in an email because it might look legit. Hover over it and read the full URL (not just the beginning, since this part usually matches!).
Google Adwords Alerts usually come in plain text, not HTML or Rich Text.
Check the headers of the email and look for specific information pertaining to your account in the email:
A real email from Google Adwords always includes the following:
The currency
The amount
The Adwords Account Number for the affected account
And here are two real emails from Google:
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Hello,
We attempted to process a payment of [currency][amount] on Oct 28, 2008 using your primary credit card, but your credit card issuer declined the payment. For the time being, your ads are still running; however, we require that you update the credit card information in your AdWords account very soon in order to ensure continued ad serving.
Your credit card issuer declined the payment attempt on your primary
card without giving a specific reason, so please contact them to
determine the reason and resolve the issue. Then update your primary
credit card information to trigger us to attempt another charge.
To update your credit card information, please follow the instructions in our Help Center: https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_US
If you don’t manually make changes to your payment information, our system will automatically try to charge your card(s) again within the next 24 hours. If that charge attempt fails, we won’t attempt another and we’ll send you another email notification like this one.
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
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Your AdWords account number: [your adwords account number]
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message. If you have any questions, please visit the Google AdWords Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_US.
Google Ireland Ltd.
Gordon House, Barrow Street
Dublin 4, Ireland
Registered in Dublin, Ireland | Registration Number: 368047
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Hello,
Your ads are not running because your credit card issuer declined our
attempt to process a payment of [currency][amount] on Aug 12, 2008 using your primary credit card.
Your credit card issuer declined the payment on your primary credit
card because there were insufficient funds. We’ll try to charge your
card again in a few hours, but you may wish to contact your credit card issuer as well to ensure that your account has sufficient funds for a charge in this amount.
To update your credit card information, please follow the instructions in our Help Center: https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_US
If you don’t manually make changes to your payment information, our
system will automatically try to charge your card(s) again within the
next 24 hours. If that charge attempt fails, we won’t attempt another
and we’ll send you another email notification like this one.
Once we’re able to authorize a payment successfully, your ads will
begin running again. Keep in mind that it may take a few hours before
your Billing Summary page reflects this with a ‘Payment received’ link.
There’s no need to contact us to reactivate your ads or account.
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
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Your AdWords account number: [your adwords account number]
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message. If you have any questions, please visit the Google AdWords Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_US .
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Posted in: tech mix
Comments RSS FeedReply
Ttrackback
I am the owner of bobpalin.com – I wish I knew who was faking the dex@bobpalin.com address and how to stop them. I have spent a lot of time on this problem, they are not using my mail server just altering the headers of their email.
My apologies for any inconvenience this has caused you.
Bob Palin
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!