Be on the lookout. Phishing schemes are no longer limited to scammers trying to steal your bank account or Paypal account details. The latest phishing scheme hitting inboxes across the web is targeting Google Adwords users asking them for their login and contact details for their Google Adwords account.
I’m not really quite sure why somebody would want to hack an Adwords account? They can’t withdraw any money from it and if they use it to buy advertising for a site, there’s a trail a million miles wide. The most it could cause is a serious inconvenience for the account owner if the account is compromised.
Always remember, companies like Google, eBay or Amazon will never send you an email asking for account details and most companies will never send you an insecure (http://) link instead of a secure (https://) link.
Here’s a copy of an email I received today…
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Dear Google AdWords customer!
In order to confirm your contact details, please click the link below: http://adwords.google.com/accounts/VE?service=adwords&c=33785003324529761 This should take you directly to the Google AdWords Form. Thank you for choosing AdWords. We look forward to providing you with the most Sincerely, The Google AdWords Team |
When hovering over the link in the email, the real url is …
http://adwordsgoogle.com.idir170.eu/accounts/VE?service=adwords&c=3
Which is a page disguised to look like a Google webpage, except if you enter your account details, more than likely you’re account will be compromised.
Tagged: Adwords, Phishing Scheme
what do they think they are going to do with an Adwords account? Wouldn’t it be obvious to Google if somebody has run Adwords and all of a sudden starts trying to put in strange sites?
Strange. I am having several of these emails today but to the wrong email not on my Adwords account.
Thanks for the heads up. Also, I’m not sure but I think Google tracks their adwords using IP Adresses. So if you have a complaint Google should be able to check and see if the IP matches or if its to some computer in Iraq or something.
ohh.. I also received e-mails similar to those. We should be very keen and observe, specially the permalink used in the e-mail just like what you said.. :D yay!
Those phishers are really clever. But we should be more clever to avoid possible e-mail scams. :)
you make a good point -
@Matt - Google does keep elaborate IP tracking, which is why I couldn’t understand the point of somebody trying to get your Adwords login information. However, I found this post from lat March at Seroundtable…
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/016647.html
Apparently, they are phishing for credit card details and not just your Adwords account login information.
[…] The latest phishing scheme is targeting Google Adwords customers in attempts to steal their loging information and possibly gain access to their credit card information. If you are a Google Adwords customer, please take the time to read - Beware of Google Adwords Phishing Scheme. […]
An excellent catch there. I think I did receive one of these in my Gmail inbox the other day. I hovered over the URL, and it pointed to a g00gle.ru site. haha
It is true that phishing websites have gone to extreme cases. One of my close friend is a victim of this scammers. He click the link from his outlook express email account to his paypal. Luckily, he able to file a claim and get back his money. Things would have been worse if someone got hold of our bank account login details. During this economic downturn, debts and financial crisis pushing many people to involve in unhealthy activities like this. The best way to survive is to protect our accounts and have solid anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spyware, etc installed in all our computers and handhelds.
I get a lot of these types of emails, and sad to say, I have clicked on plenty of them. Once at the page, luckily it becomes pretty obvious what’s what.