You are most likely to become aware of problems with your account when you get an unexpected bill from AdWords on your credit card or bank statement. This can be frighteningly large. The good news is that Google is being generous to advertisers at the moment, and is suspending payments and repaying stolen funds. However, that doesn’t mean that you should wait – as soon as you detect a problem, you *must* act.
Do Not Click On Links In Emails Warning You About AdWords Problems.
Do Type The URL of Google AdWords Directly In The Browser Bar
https://adwords.google.com
You won’t *directly* end up out of pocket. As well as giving you advice on what to do after you detect abuse, we offer another article about what you should do while the account theft is being investigated by Google.
Some of the AdWords Help Experts offer monitoring and management services that can either directly monitor your account for abuse, or monitor the account as a side effect of other AdWords activity. Here is a description of the signatures that we look for, when we’re investigating a possibly abused account. If you see these, then you should be suspicious and should alert Google or contact your advertising professional services immediately. We have another article describing what you should do, if you do find that your account has been compromised.
- Spending increases – perhaps from nothing
- Notifications disabled
- New Campaigns you don’t remember
- New AdGroups you don’t remember
- New Adverts you don’t remember
- New Keywords you don’t remember
- New Destination URLS you haven’t added
We have one additional concern – Phishing Scams. We expect that the next sneaky trick will be to send you alerts that your account has been compromised, and offering you a link in the email to check your account. Chances are that this link will, itself, lead to a scammers site who will offer a good copy of the AdWords site, where you’ll hand over your account name and password directly to the thieves.
Do Not Click On Links In Emails Warning You About AdWords Problems.
Do Type The URL of Google AdWords Directly In The Browser Bar
https://adwords.google.com/
