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If thieves obtain access to your pay-per-click
account, they are in complete control of your pay-per-click activity and
could place ads on their behalf but charge your account for them.
Unauthorized users are likely to do one of two
things. First, the users could bury their own keywords and ads deep in your
account without changing anything else, such as settings and budgets. The
idea is to run ads quietly so the account owner doesn't know he's paying for
somebody else's clicks.
Second, the users could go through a one-night
rendezvous by dumping all sorts of high-cost keywords into your account and
adjusting budgets to hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. The idea is
to get as many ridiculously expensive clicks (even $90 a click or more) as
possible on your credit card.
Regardless of the option your hacker would
prefer, you could end up paying thousands of dollars for somebody else's
clicks. To determine if you are a victim of this type of fraud:
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Run keyword reports weekly and look beyond
the first page (many advertisers tend to ignore keywords that are not in
their top 50 list).
-
Look for keywords that shouldn't be there.
Also, run ad reports to figure out if you have any unfamiliar ads.
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Keep track of your normal ad spend and
always be suspicious if there is a spike in costs.
-
Check on your accounts frequently.
Here's what you need to do to prevent your
passwords from being stolen:
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Set up free image protection in your
Yahoo! Search Marketing login page (Yahoo! is the first one to recognize
the seriousness of the issue).
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Change your passwords each month.
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Install and run spyware detection and
anti-virus software, such as Google Pack (google.com/pack), which has
both for free.
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Do not react to emails asking you to
update passwords or verify something in your pay-per-click account.
If you have fallen victim to the fraud,
contact your pay-per-click support team immediately. If you do not employ an
outside agency, contact the search engines directly.
Alternatively, change all passwords in your
pay-per-click accounts and pause all campaigns. Once the issue has been
reported, it's out of your hands. Search engines will conduct an internal
investigation and will contact you to resolve the situation. Be sure to stay
on top of all requests from the engine's support teams and promptly respond
to all messages. After all, it's your fault somebody hijacked your
pay-per-click account.
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