Concerned!! Phishing email or real from google??

[rachelle123]

Hey guys..

Have had an account with google for almost 2 yrs.. but just recently started using it the last mth..

Anyway the email that is associated with the adwords account is a gmail account..

I just received a email in my sympatico account(which they don't have) from google.. I have never received any warnings from them before at all.. I have only had 3 campaigns which are currently on pause..Not direct linking.. all review sites..

This is what it reads: this is the email it was sent from: Google Adwords <LPQ-Support@google.com>

Dear advertiser,

We are writing to let you know that your Google AdWords account is at risk of being suspended due to multiple violations related to Landing Page and Site Quality. Please check the existing ads in your account to ensure that they comply with policy.

As part of our commitment to making the AdWords experience safe and effective for our users and our advertisers, we routinely review the landing pages that our advertisers promote through our search and content networks. If we find that an advertiser has submitted poor quality landing pages that do not comply with our advertising policies, including the Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines, we reserve the right to take account-level action.

Landing pages advertised via AdWords must have relevant, original content, and must be transparent about the nature of the business being promoted. Further, advertisers are prohibited from promoting certain types of sites, which include, but are not limited to:
* Data collection sites that imply delivery of free items, etc., in order to collect private information
* Arbitrage sites without relevant and original content that are designed for the purpose of showing ads
* Affiliate sites without relevant and original content that are designed to drive traffic to another site with a different domain
* "Get-rich quick" sites that make unrealistic promises
* Sites that are deceptive
* Sites that distribute malware or spyware
* Extremely misleading/unverifiable or inaccurate claims

Please note that this action is related to sites that have recently been advertised through your account. In a review of your account history, we found that your account had submitted multiple sites that merited poor landing page quality evaluations. Advertisers that have a history of promoting poor quality landing pages are subject to account-level disabling.

You can review our Advertising Policies, including our Landing Page and Site Quality guidelines, by visiting:AdWords Help and http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46675

In addition, our FAQ about Account Disablings can be found here: https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164786

If you have additional questions or concerns not addressed by our policies or help center, you can contact support by replying to this email.


Sincerely,

The Google AdWords team

Is this for real? and why would they not send this to my gmail account that is associated with my adwords account..

Any insight would be great..

thanks,
Kim

[thenextlevel]

It looks legit to me. It's not asking for any of your information or anything like that. It says you can reply with questions. That is what I would do. If you get a legitimate response back, then I would assume it's really from google.

[rachelle123]

Yes have sent them an email about it..

The only thing that has me stumped.. For one.. they don't have this email.. for another its my gmail account that is linked to my adwords account..

And this is the first email I have received regarding this.. they stated they have warned me several times..

Have spoken to some other ppl that have actually received the same email.. so will just wait for them to get back to me..

thanks,
kim

[showbizvet]

It's always scary to get an email from ebay, paypal or Google, since you know it might affect your income. In your case, it does look legit, but how they got your email, who knows. They are google and maybe you have it listed and forgot, but no matter, wait and see how they respond, then go from there.

[KirkMcD]

Originally Posted by rachelle123

And this is the first email I have received regarding this.. they stated they have warned me several times..

They haven't actually been sending warnings.
People are getting this email and then their accounts have been suspended. Don't wait, check your keyword Quality Scores now and fix them.

[rachelle123]

Ok so the first email I recieved was nov 5th.. so i emailed them asking why and what I have done.. they explained it was due to low quality score and that I should fix my account.. But my quality scores were 8/10 for both campaigns..lol

so anyway, went into my account nov 5th.. and deleted everything... heard that pausing doesnt rectify anything...

I just received an email this morning stating that my account has been suspended due to low qs...lol...

So my question is : is it banned or suspended for a certain amount of time?

I have 2 accounts... the one (2yrs) got the suspention...

So today i wanted to see if this would work.. i loaded up a bogus campaign in my other account.. different name/ different cc but same ip...(this account is about 3mths old.)

ads are still pending but I am receiving impressions.. so should this indicate that this account is still ok?

Kim

[rachelle123]

Now I really dont know what is going on.. Sent an email to google yesterday about the suspension letter I received. I did all the necessary changes to my account like they asked in the first email..

Get a response back stating that my account HAS NOT been suspended.. it was only a warning... launched a few campaigns.. and i'm good..

The email I received yesterday DID state that I was suspended.. so I don't know what is going on..

Just be careful... Don't run re-bills (unless you have a bullet proof cloaking script) and direct linking..

[mediadealer]

I got that email today too, went into my account everything was still active..i did have some campaigns that were kinda low on the QS so i just deleted everything...i'll give it a week or so maybe try setting up some new campaigns and see how things go.

thankfully i'm not dependant (at all) on adwords traffic.

--corey

[Sylonious]

Originally Posted by mediadealer

I got that email today too, went into my account everything was still active..i did have some campaigns that were kinda low on the QS so i just deleted everything...i'll give it a week or so maybe try setting up some new campaigns and see how things go.

thankfully i'm not dependant (at all) on adwords traffic.

--corey

Check your ad preview tool to make sure your ads are still showing.

Hey guys... I just posted about this as well... I looked into my account and things LOOK LIKE they are working properly, but then looked at the Adwords Ad Preview tool - I discovered that NONE of my ads were displaying like they were earlier in the day. Check out your ads here:

https://adwords.google.com/select/Ad...ingPreviewTool Source: Google Forums

My guess is that either Adwords got hacked or Google is starting to crack down on almost everything Affiliate and CPA related.

Sites that charge users for information that makes unrealistic promises of financial or personal gain.

All I can think of when they say that is Clickbank ebooks.

[Don Schenk]

Hey Solonious,

Interesting find.

The Mike Golic sales page only says, "*Results not typical. Individuals are remunerated." No footnote for the asterisk, nor anything claiming typical results.

The other Weight Watchers page only has "Results not typical."

:-Don

[JohnMcCabe]

Kim, while this does look legit, this time, I'd issue a warning to anyone getting something like this.

Don't reply to the letter or click any links. It's very easy to hide a malicious link so it looks legitimate.

Type in the site (or in this case, log into your Adwords account) and contact support through that channel. Paste the email in question and ask if it's legit.

I apply this procedure to any site that might have sensitive information. Adwords/Adsense, PayPal, banks, credit card companies, retailers like Amazon, etc.

It's too easy for scammers to plant a Trojan or keylogger by scaring you into clicking a link in a normal-looking email.

[Sylonious]

This might have something to do with the new FTC rules. Maybe Google is taking it upon themselves to "clean up" there own ad networks and at the same time cripple their affiliate network competition Clickbank and Azoogle.

I had a few placement ads pulled. One was direct linking for eMusic.com. I had to e-mail them to get them to turn my ad on. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now they are looking at that as a history of bad behavior.

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

It's too easy for scammers to plant a Trojan or keylogger by scaring you into clicking a link in a normal-looking email.

The one I received didn't have a link in it.

[ryanman]

Another Big Adword Banning Operation? Did You Get The Scary Email Yet?

[Ace Of Shirts]

Yep, I got the suspended account letter today. Logged in and everything has been paused. I use Adwords very little, only about $50 a month and most of that is to my custom printing sites.

I also advertise 2 clickbank products by direct linking and neither are in the money making area.

Really surprised me. Sent them an email with no response yet.

Dennis Graves

[mattblack]

I got the same for ubot-studio.com saying the same and my ads have the keywords "ubot" and "ubot studio" whats wrong with that?