11/08
2008
More Google AdWords Phishing Emails (7,906 views)
Meanwhile pretty much everybody should be aware of phishing emails and how to spot them – no matter if they refer to your bank accounts (almost daily I receive emails asking to update my account information with banks I haven’t even heard of), your Paypal account, your ebay account, and most recently even your domain registrations with network solutions.
Nevertheless these emails keep coming, and users get trapped every day.
So here are the newest ones claiming to be from Google Adwords:
Received: Fri 11/7/2008 1:31 AM
From: Google AdWords [adwords@google.com]
Subject: Google AdWords Alert
Header: Return-Path: <dex@bobpalin.com>
Delivered-To: [myemail]@ninanet.com
Received: (qmail 41613 invoked from network); 7 Nov 2008 09:30:40 -0000
X-Mail-Scanner: Scanned by qSheff 1.0-r3 (http://www.enderunix.org/qsheff/)
Received: from unknown (HELO ?79.133.155.27?) (79.133.155.27)
by *my mail server* - 79.133.155.27 with SMTP; 7 Nov 2008 09:30:39 -0000
Received: from [79.133.155.27] by mx1.mailhop.org; Fri, 7 Nov 2008 12:30:38 +0300
From: "Google AdWords" <adwords@google.com>
To: <[myemail]@ninanet.com>
Subject: Google AdWords Alert
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 12:30:38 +0300
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0006_01C940D4.A3AC6B00"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.6353
Thread-Index: Aca6Q86UB1OM0E8H8FEPGP29TW0WOA==
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1437
Message-ID: <01c940d4$a3ac6b00$1b9b854f@dex>
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our system was unable to process a payment for your outstanding Google AdWords account balance using your primary credit card. For the time being, your account is still open, and your ads are still running. However, we require you to update the payment information in your AdWords account very soon in order to ensure continued ad serving.
Please update your credit card information in order to trigger our billing system to try processing your payment again. If you plan to use the same credit card(s), please use the ‘Retry Card’ button on the Billing Preferences page of your account. Otherwise, please follow the steps below to update the information in your AdWords account.
1. Log in to your AdWords account at: http://adwords.google.com
2. Click the ‘My Account’ tab.
3. Click ‘Billing Preferences’ link.
4. Click Edit next to the appropriate ‘Payment Details’ section.
5. Enter your new or updated payment information.
6. Click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished.
In the future, you may wish to use a back up credit card in order to help ensure continuous delivery of your ads. You can add a back up credit card by visiting your Billing Preferences page or visit the AdWords Help Centre for more.
Tip: You can review the status of your billing on the Billing Summary page, under the ‘My Account’ tab. If a payment has been declined, click ‘Payment Declined’ beside the line item to review information for that particular payment. Once your payment has been processed successfully, you can view and print an invoice from your Billing Summary page.
—————————————————————— 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 Centre at https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_GB to find answers to frequently asked questions and a ‘contact us’ link near the bottom of the page. —————————————————————-
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This one was sent to all my email accounts as well as to all email accounts for a client.
First, if your payment for your Adwords account gets declined, your ads are NOT running if your account is in the US, Google suspends them immediately.
If your account is in England, they might still be running, since they do not suspend them (see the real emails for Google at the end of this post).
Second, who is dex@bobpalin.com?
And why would Google be using a mail server in Russia (79.133.155.27)?
For those who are still not convinced, the link in the original (of course not plain text) email does not take you to your Adwords Login page, but here:
http://adwords.google.com.session-28452946214953142525.38926930096145367630.sys56.ru.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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!