I had an AdWords account of mine hacked on September 18th. I had not logged directly into this particular AdWords account in a long time, at least 6 months. I do access it occasionally but always via my MCC login. Whoever hacked the account accessed it using the primary login, not the MCC. I’m really at a loss as to how the account was compromised. I use strong passwords and take a lot of precautions like making sure I’m only logging in from secure environments.
I have to give credit to Google’s systems for detecting the unusual activity and disabling the entire account before any charges were incurred. None of the campaigns created by the hacker every received a single impression – even though they had high daily budgets and CPC’s associated with the keywords they had added to the account.
The purpose of this post is just to serve as a reminder to everyone with an AdWords account…how strong is your password and when is the last time you changed it? While I was very fortunate…that might not be the case for everyone. The person who hacked my AdWords account could have changed my password and locked me out…that didn’t happen. I was also very fortunate that this was not a business or client account, it’s really more of just a hobby account I use for testing and other non-critical AdWords related projects.
If you find that one or more of your AdWords accounts has been hacked here’s what to do:
It’s assumed the computer(s) you use to access your AdWords account(s) are free of viruses and spyware and that your connection to the Internet is secure. If that’s not the case even after following the steps below there is a possibility your AdWords account will still not be secure.
1. If you can still access the hacked account change the password right away. Make sure to create a strong password.
2. Pause/delete the campaigns that were modified or added by the hacker.
3. Contact AdWords Support. If you discover your account has been hacked during Google’s business hours call them immediately at 1 (866) 246-6453 and then follow up with an e-mail so there’s a written record of your report (very important). If it’s outside of business hours send a message to the AdWords team via the contact form. You can also try and make contact via the “chat with a specialist feature which is here.
4. Change all of your other important passwords. If your AdWords password has been compromised the possibility exists that other passwords you use have been compromised as well.
There are a lot of different ways an account could have been compromised. The following links provide additional information and advice for people who have had an AdWords account hacked:
- Google AdWords Account Hacks Via Computer Exploit
- Google AdWords Account Hacked: False Ads and False Charges
- Protecting Your Google AdWords Account From Fraud
- What to do if I Think Someone’s Hacked my AdWords Account
- Your Gmail Account (Google Account) Can be Hacked: Here’s How to Protect it
- A Kidnapped AdWords Account
- AdWords Hackers – What a Nightmare
- Locked out of AdWords Account
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