Google Ads Strategists, who are part of the Google Extended Workforce, are using AI-generated profile photos and names when reaching out to advertisers. An email sent from Kassy Garcia from Google to Joe Youngblood seems legit but when you look up who Kassy Garcia is, you won't find anything.
Joe Youngblood posted about this on X saying, "Google is using AI-generated people for Google Ads contacts."
He explained:
I got a call from Google Ads today, standard xwf contractor calling to try and get us to run more ads, run bad ads, etc...The caller used their real name which is an Indian first name, was male, and had a moderate Indian / South Asian accent.
I asked if they were a Google employee or contractor and then politely declined to speak with an xWF contractor and hung up.
An hour later this email came in from a "Kassy Garcia" claiming to be a Google Ads Strategist.
When he looked up Kassy Garcia of Google in LinkedIn, he found nothing. When he checked the profile photo in the email, he saw that it was generated by AI, using Google's AI checking tool.
Here are screenshots:
Google does have an extended workforce, Google documents it over here saying:
Important: Always check carefully the identity of persons or entities claiming to act, on behalf of Google. You can do this by asking them to send you an email so that you can verify their identification. Google representatives always have an email address that ends with @xwf.google.com.
We covered the xwf.google.com stuff before but should these "people" be using AI or their real name and profile photos?
I did ask Google about this but I did not hear back:
@YoungbloodJoe jesus. LOL
— Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) October 29, 2026
@YoungbloodJoe I don't think it is new but man fake profile photos on Google Ads reps is a bad thing - cc @adsliaison
see https://t.co/neY1Hycs15
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) October 29, 2026
Forum discussion at X.
