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Security Concern About Google Adwords Email
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2006-05-23
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
A discussion came up in WebProWorld about an email many Adwords customers were receiving.
Debbie Harrison, an MVP member of WebProWorld started the thread with the following ...
Be warned Adwords Account holders: New email in circulation
Hi all
I have just warned all my customers and I will do the same for this community: I have just received an email from Click Settlement (or claims to be) that reads the following:
This court-ordered notice may affect your legal rights. Please read it carefully. If you purchased online advertising from Google between January 1, 2002 and the present, you are a class member in a class-action lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice is to inform you of the Court's certification of a class; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement. Please read the attached notice.
You can get more information at: www.clicksettlement.com.
It is written in 8 different languages and the URL isn't pointed to click settlement (or the like).
Seems to be a mix between the 419 scams and the phishing emails.
Just thought I'd mention it y'know. If it saves one person from being fooled, I would say it was worth it. I have also notified Google.
HTH
_________________
Debbie Harrison
DVH Design
To help clear this up for anyone concerned here are how WebProWorld posters responded:
Adam Lasnik, Bay Area, California
Google's made an official announcement on this topic. You can check it out here: Inside AdWords
TrafficProducer, United Kingdom
Read this WARNING !!! And other notes: http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?p=301695#301695
Sorry if I repeat, if it is fraud it needs to be stopped as soon as possible, this BUT Read the WARNINGS: Is it Phishing
dharrison, Essex, UK
I just got an email from Google saying that it was for real. So the content is right but the link is a hoax. Very very crafty.
incrediblehelp
Um yeah just like eBay and Paypal are for real the those phishing email links are not. I thought everyone knew that Google was sued and lost for PPC fraud by now?
senaTTor, Fort Lauderdale
I got this email too, and all the links seem to match up with the notice from Google (i.e. clicksettlement.com and clicksettlement@xmr3.com) I'm not sure I see the hoax. Plus they're not asking for anything...? Maybe I'm crazy. Scratch that - I'm definitely crazy. Seems like this one is real?
Christian SEO, Minneapolis MN USA
Please explain the scam part of this mailing of which I received about 6 copies? All were addressed to valid Google account emails and none were received on any of the normal addresses that I received spam on. From my prespective, this is a SPAM mailing that is connected to the law firm in the case. Check the domain that the site is registered to. I think the mailing should be reported as SPAM, since the party behind the mailing (the law firm) is a commercial operation that stands to profit BIG TIME if everyone goes along with the suit.
ron angel, london uk
The thing is where did they get the mailing list to just the right people, was it inside or privileged information they were using if so did they break the law? the dns record show that the site belongs to
Gilardi & Co. Created on.: Fri, May 12, 2006 to where it was redirected.
anablak, FtLaud, FL
We also received this email. I wasn't aware that email was a valid conveyor of legal notice in the United States. Is this something new? Any class action suit that we have previously been involved with have always had notice delivered via U.S.P.S. or posted in the legal notices section of the newspaper.
mont7071
I don't see how either of you can feel that this email is "spam" . It is sent to a specific, targeted class (the contact info of which they got FROM GOOGLE). Just because the lawfirm sending out the message will benefit from the eventual class action settlement doesn't make this spam.
zephyrireland, Ireland
I recieved this email on 3 separate email addresses. One of these email addresses is 100% private, only Google and 3-4 personal contacts know that address. The address is not predictable, i.e. info or sales, so how did they get these details ???
cvos, L.A.
This is most definitely real: Firm Fails to Derail Google Deal
anablak, FtLaud, FL
I don't think it's is an argument of whether the issue is real, that is fact, the issue is real. The emails we are receiving, on the other hand, have a dark hole in them. So in my curiosity, I called the 800 number on the website. All seems on the up and up at first. A recording telling you where you reached (the click settlement, etc etc) then you have a choice to speak to a live operator which I did.
In speaking with the person who answered the phone, I queried him about why this wasn't done via U.S. Mail like other class action suit notices. He stated it was agreed upon during the hearing that all matters pertaining to this issue would be handled electronically. I asked how one could determine when the email was sent. He stated it was sent the same day I received it, Friday, May 19th to which I said I didn't receive it until Saturday, May 20th (Sat, 20 May 2006 16:05:49 -0400 from the mail header.) Dead Silence on the other end of the phone. I then asked if a summary of what transpired during the hearing was available from the Miller County Circuit Court. There was dead silence again. Finally, he stated the courts do not usually like to get involved in this and asked if he could transfer me to counsel (attorney.) I told him I would contact the Miller County Circuit Court and if I needed to, would call him back. More dead silence on the other end of the phone.
This sparked my curiosity more. In returning to clicksettlement.com and following the "Click Settlement Notice" link, I was taken to the pdf address http://209.237.234.46/pdf/gogl1not_eng.pdf. In doing a bit of research on the IP address, this is what I came up with:
WHOIS Record For
209.237.234.46
Record Type: IP Address
TravelWizard, Inc NET-BLK-TRAVELWIZARD-1 (NET-209-237-234-0-1)
209.237.234.0 - 209.237.234.255
TravelWizard.com... why would a claims administrator of this magnitude be serving it's files from an IP address that belongs to a travel agency? Clicks are adding up here.
I believe I will contact Miller County Circuit Court to determine who the claims administrator is for the case tomorrow. Maybe this will resolve the issue of the email.
_________________
Ana
intelliot
Why do you think this is spam or a phishing scam? It's real. Google must be involved because the emails are mostly being sent to AdWords account holders. Also, this has been reported in the news.
TheGarty, Western Australia
The question remains.... how the #$%@ did they get the google adwords acount holder database if it was a scam... thats a huge security risk i would have thought???
zbatia, Baltimore, MD
I've got an e-mail with a right link, so, it's not a hoax. I put a lot of money into Adwords at that time but I don't know how I can prove the click fraud. There is not way to go "back to the past" ... :-(
dharrison, Essex, UK
I daresay this one was genuine. But alarm bells started to ring in the back of my mind when the "From" email address stated clicksettlement@whatever.com. The link to also looked unusual. So it could be another step up from phishing, or maybe we have all just been made too aware of the horror stories from the victims of dodgy emails phishing scams etc, but I for one would rather be too careful than not careful enough.
You can add to the conversation in this WebProWorld thread...
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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