I use Google Adwords to generate traffic to various offers, and this morning I received the following email message…

Perhaps it was coincidence, but I recently updated my credit card information with Google’s Adwords program.  So, when I received the above message, I thought perhaps I’d entered something incorrectly.

When I clicked on the link in the email message, I noticed that the URL in the address bar looked suspicious.  So, I immediately closed the browser window before it had a chance to fully load.  Then I logged into my Adwords account as per my regular secure route.  Normally, if there are any issues that require your attention, Google will place a brief message on the main login page.  I had no message.  I checked the billing status of my account and everything was cool.  Google had collected their toll a few days ago.

Was this a phishing message?  I’m 99.9999% sure it was.  No, I’m 100% sure it was.  Those low down phishing scumbags are getting really sneaky.  Stay on the ball, and if you receive messages from banks, credit card companies, PayPal, or even Google… don’t use the links in the email messages.  If you’d like to make sure your account is in good standing, use secure login processes and make sure the URL is a secure (i.e. https://… rather than http://…) connection.