Ohio’s Attorney General Office Cautions of Fake Email Alert

The Ohio Attorney General's Office has warned the residents to stay alert of a new email scam that seems to have come from Google AdWords and target its users, as per the news by chillicothegazette.com on October 6, 2011.

Google AdWords is a service that provides a web user to create and run ads for his business in a fast and simple manner.

The Google AdWords has several subjects, one of which is the "Google AdWords: You have a new alert".

The scam mail reads, "Dear Valued Customer, Please update your primary and backup payment information, even if you plan to use the same information. Please follow the steps below to update your payment information."

Further, it adds that your credit card will only be accessed for re-enabling the user's account. They (Google AdWords) also said that they will not display or share it without the user's consent.

This above mentioned text of the phishing mail is followed by some steps to complete the update process which includes, logging into the email recipient's account, then entering his latest updated data and lastly clicking on 'Save Changes' button when the work is finished.

For making the email sound authentic and reliable, the mail signs off with 'Sincerely' on behalf of The Google Team 2011.

Throwing light on the above scam, Attorney General Mike DeWine, Ohio stated that they have been getting messages at the office itself, as per the reports by chillicothegazette.com on October 6, 2011.

He added that people should never click on any attached links in such scam mails. Moreover, he stated that when any user gets a mail like this, they must directly contact the company instead of clicking on any links to find out the authenticity of the mail.

The Google's AdWords support page claims that they will never send an unwanted mail asking users to reveal any private information, as per the reports by chillicothegazette.com on October 6, 2011.

Lastly, this is not the first time that hackers have initiated a phishing attack on Google's AdWords. In July 2011, Internet security company, Sophos found a phishing scam in which mass mails were sent to netizens, informing them that their Google AdWords might have stopped operating.

Related article: Ohio Residents’ Stolen Information at Low Risk of ID Fraud

» SPAMfighter News - 10/18/2011