What Is Happening?

A recent surge in phishing scams is targeting the Google Ads accounts of media buyers and advertisers. These scams exploit the tendency of some users to search for login pages on their browser rather than directly navigating to them. Fraudsters create sponsored search ads that closely resemble legitimate Google Ads login links. These ads appear when users search for “Google Ads” or similar terms. Clicking on the malicious ad leads to a fraudulent login page that mimics the real Google Ads login page. Unsuspecting users enter their login credentials on the phishing page, unknowingly granting hackers access to their Google Ads accounts. Hackers then leverage the compromised accounts to create new advertising campaigns. These campaigns can be disguised to appear legitimate, further spreading the scam or generating fraudulent clicks for the attackers’ benefit.

Advertisers have voiced concerns with having to spot these issues on their own in their accounts as well as the delayed response from Google with trying to get the account temporarily suspended to stop the scammers. Google is aware of the issue and issued the following statement: “Google maintains a strict policy against ads designed to deceive users and steal their information. Our teams are diligently investigating these phishing attacks and working swiftly to mitigate the threat.” 

 What You Can Do To Protect Your Google Ads Account

To prevent yourself from falling into this trap and putting your Google Ads account at risk, proactive security measures are imperative. Implementing robust security protocols, such as two-factor authentication is crucial to prevent unauthorized access. The most direct way to combat this would be to ensure you type ‘ads.google.com’ into your browser for direct access. It can feel easier for some people to just type “Google ads” into their browser and click on what they presume is the correct website. I prefer to bookmark the Google Ads login page for convenient access. This eliminates the need to manually type the entire URL each time and also mitigates the risk of encountering phishing scams that may appear in search results for ‘Google Ads’.