MH1 Web Design Blog

by Mike Hallaron, MH1 Web Design

Email scams are as old as the Internet. Recently, we have received another round of a familiar phishing scam under the guise of a Google AdWords customer billing email. Those of you operating an AdWords account need to be aware before falling prey to this trick in the confusion and turning over your credit card or other vital financial information.

Here is how it works

You receive an email from “Google AdWords”, the popular pay-per-click tool. The subject line reads something like “Your AdWords Google Account is stopped”.  The email message reads like this:

Dear Advertiser,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,
and update your payment information.Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.This is a common “phishing” ploy. Simply defined, phishing is a fraudulent email claiming to be from PayPal, eBay, Google, Youtube or online banks that direct the recipient to a fake Web page in an attempt to trick him into entering sensitive account information or credit card details.

If you are uncertain, skip using the link provided in the suspect email and go straight to the Web site in question (google.com in this case) and login as normal. You might change your password and contact customer support about the mysterious email request to update your payment information.

Bottom line, if you get a link in any email asking you to update credit card or bank information, you should NOT click it no matter how real it looks or whose email address the notice appears to come from.

Phishing can be used against you in many ways and if successful can devastate your private finances and personal security. Be careful and contact MH1 Web Design if you are in doubt about any curious email request.

If we are managing a Google AdWords account for you, contact us with any related issues.

Houston/The Woodlands (713) 429-1746

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