I received this message last night which appears to be from the Google Adsense Team but is really from orientcasinos.com and designed to grab your adsense account information. The verify information link found in the email looks like it will take you to Google, but in fact, it takes you to orientcasinos.com – be careful!
Here is the email below
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Hello
It has come to our attention that invalid clicks and/or impressions have been generated on the Google ads on your site(s). We have therefore disabled your Google AdSense account. Please understand that this was a necessary step to protect the interests of AdWords advertisers.
You must verify your account please login here (look like) http://www.google.com/adsense [but really goes to: orientcasinos.com/google/adsense/index.htm]
As you may know, a publisher’s site may not have invalid clicks or impressions on any ad(s), including but not limited to clicks and/or impressions generated by:
– a publisher on his own web pages
– a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads
– automated clicking or surfing programs, or any other deceptive software
– a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason
These or any other such activities that violate Google AdSense Terms and Conditions and program polices may have led us to disable your account. The Terms and Conditions and program polices can be viewed at:
https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?hl=en_US
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl=en_US
If you have any questions about invalid activity or the action taken on your account, please do not reply to this email. You can find more
information by visiting https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
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Here is more information:
date Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 8:45 PM
subject Google AdSense
mailed-by soy.dreamhost.com
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Remember, this is a scam and you should not respond to it. If you received one like this, please leave a comment with a copy and I’ll get it posted. It will help prevent others from becoming a victim!
New Feature Available: Increase your earnings with AdSense for Search Ads-Only
Hello xxxx
We wanted to let you know that your account is now eligible for a new product, AdSense for Search (AFS) ads only. This is a special feature that we’re offering to a limited group of publishers who we feel have an opportunity to see significant revenue gains from these unique ads.
AFS Ads-only ads differ from regular AdSense for content ads in two primary ways:
1. Targeting: Unlike content ads which are targeted based on information our crawler gathers from the page, AFS Ads-only ads target ads directly to the search terms your users enter. We’ve seen that this type of targeting significantly improves the relevancy of ads on search pages.
2. Advertiser pool: AFS Ads-only ads give you access to a larger pool of advertisers who have specifically opted in to appear on the search partner network. These ads are very similar to what you’ll see on google.com search pages. We’ve generally seen that advertisers spend more on these campaigns because they know their ads will run on search pages where users are ‘looking for something’ and therefore more likely to interact with the ads.
We’ve had a lot of success with other search-based sites like yours and we think you’ll see similar gains.
To Learn More & Access the Implementation Guide, click HERE.
Hear from publishers just like you who found success by implementing AFS ads-only:
* Learn how Dealighted.com increased revenue by 28X on search result pages using AFS ads-only.
* Hear about how LemonFree.com effortlessly impemented AFS ads-only and saw a 20 percent increase in revenue.
Finally, as this program is only available by invitation, we’d like to ask that you refrain from sharing this information with the media or with other AdSense publishers. Thanks for your understanding, and we look forward to seeing your results with AFS ads-only.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheater Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043
NOTE: The link went to https: //sites.google. com/a/google.com/afsao1 or https: //sites.google. com/a/google.com/afsao1/CaseStudies/Dealighted
I received another today and I had to look twice real hard before I caught it! What is so tricky is that they use Google’s free webhosting (sites.google.com) to set up the scam.
They create a page that looks like it’s from google and then send you an email stating that ‘AdSense for Search Ads-Only Now Enabled for your Account’
This message came from emailcomm-google.com and contained the following message:
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Dear Account Holder,
Your account is now eligible to a run a new ad type, AdSense for Search Ads-only. For more information on this special feature, including the implementation guidelines, visit the Resource center at: https ://sites.google. com/a/google.com/afsao1/Welcome
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
copy 2010 Google
Note: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your AdSense product or account.
Google, Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043
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The link https:// sites.google. com/a/google.com/afsao1/Welcome looks like google but it’s not, it is afsao1’s website hosted at google.com’s free hosting site.
Be careful out there!
Another one, this time from siteflippingtutorial.com
Return-Path:)
Received: from gateway11.websitewelcome.com ([70.85.130.22])
by mx.google.com with SMTP id 7si10107554qwf.16.2010.05.03.13.55.31;
Mon, 03 May 2010 13:55:31 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of siteflip@cube.websitewelcome.com designates 70.85.130.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=70.85.130.22;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of siteflip@cube.websitewelcome.com designates 70.85.130.22 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=siteflip@cube.websitewelcome.com
Received: (qmail 21582 invoked from network); 3 May 2010 20:59:14 -0000
Received: from cube.websitewelcome.com (174.120.97.2)
by gateway11.websitewelcome.com with SMTP; 3 May 2010 20:59:14 -0000
Received: from siteflip by cube.websitewelcome.com with local (Exim 4.69)
(envelope-from
id 1O92fv-0005pc-Gz
Mon, 03 May 2010 15:55:35 -0500
Subject: You’re eligible to receive an AdSense Payment later this month.
X-PHP-Script: siteflippingtutorial.com/support/images/phpmailer/index.php for 76.24.88.80
From: Google AdSense
Reply-To: adsense-no-reply@googleinc.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Message-Id:
Date: Mon, 03 May 2010 15:55:35 -0500
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname – cube.websitewelcome.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain – gmail.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID – [2218 2218] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain – cube.websitewelcome.com
And today, another version of this scam from email address adsense-no-reply@googleinc.com. This time they are trying to make it appear as though you have accidentally put a hold on your account / or accumulated enough ($100) funds for payment and you simply need to log into your account to receive it.
This is a scam, and the links in the email really look like this:
http ://google.com.adsense.login.income2010.com/index.php
If you look close, you’ll see the real website is income2010.com and not google.com
Don’t fall for this scam! Here is the email below:
——————————-
Hello,
According to our records, you’ve passed the payment threshold and are eligible to receive an AdSense payment later this month — if you have no holds on your account.
You have until end of day Pacific time (GMT -8 hours), on the 15th of this month, to resolve any account issues and still be included in this month’s disbursement.
To make sure that your account is in good standing to receive a payment, please log into your account at google.com/adsense/?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-en-em-20091214-11637a&medium=email . You’ll see more information in the pink box on your Overview page when you log in. If you are already testing the new AdSense interface, you’ll find more information under ‘Alerts’ on your Overview page.
Remember, if EFT is available in your country, we encourage you to sign up. For more information, please visit: google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=15920&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-en-em-20091214-11637a&medium=email
Congratulations! We hope you receive your payment soon.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Google Ireland Ltd.
Gordon House
Barrow Street
Dublin 4
Ireland
Registered in Dublin, Ireland
Registration Number: 368047
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
USA
Email Preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google AdSense account.
Email header details are: