May
Don’t Get Hooked by the Google Adwords Phishing Emails Going Around
I have been getting some Google Adwords phishing emails lately, and aside from some poor formatting, they look fairly legitimate. Google posted some security tips the other day, and they’re not half bad, but I wanted to share an example.
Here is an email I received recently: (warning - don’t click the link in there!)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dear Google AdWords Customer,Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
Please update your payment information.Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your billing information.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Google AdWords Team
Overall the phisher did a pretty good job of making the email look legitimate. However, the formatting was a little off, and the request was a little too vague.
Plus, no matter how well camouflaged the link is, it’s not that hard to spot that the link goes to a subdomain of 4e1w1.cn, which is definitely not Adwords!
But the dead giveaway is that this email came to my “@internetmarketingsucks.com” address I have listed on this blog, which is NOT an actual Adwords account email. So obviously it’s not from Adwords because Adwords does not know about this email address…
There’s a very important lesson - don’t mingle your actual Adwords email with a public one. Then you won’t have to really worry about phishing, since your Adwords account updates will only come to your semi-private email address.
For example, you might use josh@myawesomelookingfunblog.com as a public email on your blog, but then you would use josh.doe.adwords@myawesomelookingfunblog.com for your Adwords account.
Anyway…
Be careful out there.
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I feel for those that have fallen for these phishing scams. You need to be extremely careful as you look these emails over for any danger signs. In this particular email, as you’ve said its a bit vague and thus raises a warning flag.
We have to be aware of all the bad things that can happen on the web.
I’m sort of surprised by this one.
Adwords users are (generally) a savvy bunch. You’d think this would be a phishing-resistant demographic.
If I were a bad guy, I’d bait my hook and throw it in front of less savvy people.
Guess that’s why I’m not a bad guy, huh?
Amy
Thanks for the tip I have seen 4 differnt sams this week and now this one.
It’s a simple reminder that there’s no security in the internet. So we should be careful in dealing with it.
It just goes to show that you always have to be aware of what can happen. This is one side of the internet that we’d all like to see the back of!!
Maybe there are just so many bad guys going after the less savvy markets that phishers are branching out into new fields…
Thanks for a tip. I always double check that kind of email and never click the link inside it. I always type in an address into my browser.
Thanks for the info, theres always someone thinking of the next illegal scam. Phishing is popular on Myspace
Thanks for the information. That is a dirty scam.
Thanks for the information. Though if they stole my adsense earnings it would be less than under $10!
Whenever I get an email like this I will always go to the website and then change my details that way. I never click on the links and I suggest you do the same!!
John
Thanks for a tip. Usually I type in adwords in my browser if email is from there but never click link in email. I think it’s just safer this way.
Thanks for the heads up. I think the tip on keeping your adsense account separate from your public email account is the way to go.
Thanks for the information, Mr. Sucker…