• by Laurie Sullivan , April 10, 2026

Google Ads has come under attack with phishing schemes -- a method to gain unauthorized access to accounts. In one case, the scam began as a routine business inquiry.

“While we proactively monitor for unusual account activity to stop these incidents, advertisers must remain alert,” Ginny Marvin, Google Ads product liaison, wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

Marvin asked advertisers on LinkedIn to mark suspicious emails as spam, and if they believe their account has been compromised, report it through the form, so Google can take immediate steps to secure it.

Pauline Jakober, founder of Group Twenty Seven, identified a wave of fraud targeting digital ad agencies. On Friday, she made public details of the latest phishing attack on advertisers. A scammer nearly spammed her agency by fabricating a client inquiry.

“They almost got me,” Jakober wrote, explaining how scanners nearly “slipped through the cracks using a high-level spoofing tactic.”

Jakober explained that a lead came in through her company’s website representing a large global conglomerate and although it all looked professional, she did some checking before accepting the job.

She checked the URL and then the email, which was redirected to a legitimate website, but the email came from a different address than the sender. When Jakober checked the person’s name who sent it, she could not find a LinkedIn profile.

The tipoff came from a response after Jakober sent an email. The information in the response email did not match the company’s info on their actual site and what she could find on Google Ad Transparency. When she checked Whois records, she found the domain name was created three days ago.

“Scammers are getting better at mimicking high-value leads to gain access to MCC accounts,” Jakober wrote, warning agencies to stay “vigilant.”

Some have questioned why agencies, rather than advertisers, are being targeted, and some wonder how responding to a scam lead could have provided access to an agency's My Client Center (MCC) account.