Google email says they're removing my site

...but I'm feeling innocent and they don't give me a chance to reply

[bluemi]

Now, this is pretty odd. I'm running about 50 websites and never ever had a problem with Google. I'm fully aware of their guidelines and I don't do any blackhat stuff. Yet they have sent me a message about one of my sites being removed from their index. The email comes with a link for a reinclusion request but when I go to that page I can only send them the form after ticking a box, stating that my site has indeed violated their guidelines in the past. Now, what nonsense is that? Don't they even give you a chance to claim innocence?

The site in question is a one page German site where I have put together some information from the (English) main site of a customer. At present there are no funds to do a full translation but the site is meant to give a brief overview of their services to their prospective customers from Germany.

The part that I especially don't understand is that there is supposed to be some kind of redirection from mydomain.de to mydomain.de/index.htm which is not acccording to their guidelines. I don't have any redirections on that site.

Anyone with a similar experience here?

[mirrornl]

from mydomain.de to mydomain.de/index.htm?

[bluemi]

Yes, that's what they say...

[cornflower]

The part that I especially don't understand is that there is supposed to be some kind of redirection from mydomain.de to mydomain.de/index.htm which is not acccording to their guidelines. I don't have any redirections on that site.

Bluemi,

Don't take the slightest bit of notice of that email. It is highly unlikely that google sent you that email. It sounds 99.99% fake and from a spammer of some sort, most probably from a clown.

[MarkWolk]

cornflower, research older threads on this forum and you'll see you are mistaken. Google does send such emails.

[martinibuster]

Google stopped sending penalty notifications last month because of hoax emails.

See this webmaster central announcement [googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com].

And this WebmasterWorld thread.
[webmasterworld.com...]

And this thread [seroundtable.com] at SE Roundtable.

[bluemi]

Thanks a lot, and sorry for the false alert. I just found out about it myself. The email is a pretty good fake, it almost ruined my evening...

[vik_c]

They can just redirect people who log in, in to the mail they want to show them or provide a link to the mail.

[bobsc]

Update:

[googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com...]

[Essex_boy]

I have received on previously and the one I received was genuine and helpful

[theBear]

Maybe Google will figure out they can use pgp to sign their emails.