Scary Google Ads Phishing Scam

Jan 17, 2025 - 7:51 am 3 by
Filed Under Google Ads

Google Ads Scam

Some are seeing a super scary Google Ads phishing scam in the Google Search ads slots. When you search, sometimes a scam may come up, sending you to a Google Sites address that is not managed by Google, where it asks you to login to your Google account with your username and password.

I spotted this on LinkedIn via Fabrizio Trentacosti who shared this video showing the scam. I made the video into a GIF but click through to see the full video:

Google Ads Phishing Scam

Google's Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, responded saying, "Thanks for flagging. I've passed this along. We expressly prohibit ads that aim to deceive people in order to steal their information or scam them. Our teams are actively investigating this issue and working quickly to address it."

Do not fall for these scams, and I am hopeful by the time this story goes live, Google fully patched this scam.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Update: Here is an update from Ginny Marvin:

We have addressed this issue and are now working with impacted advertisers to regain access to their accounts. Our teams continue to implement protections to keep these bad actors off our platform.

 

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