Phishing or Genuine Google Refund

[engine]

I received an email from Google telling me I'm entitled to a refund for an old adwords account going back a few years. Nobody but Google would (should) know about the account, so it's always troubling when receiving such an e-mail as it could be genuine. There is no indicator in the account, which, I would have thought, is the obvious place to post a message.

Anyone else get similar e-mails in the last few weeks?

Phishing or genuine?

[not2easy]

Examine the headers, it will show you the sender's actual email address. It depends on what email client you are using as to how it is done, but usually there is an option listed under "View".

[keyplyr]

@engine - if there's a field to enter your payee's name, feel free to use moi.

[engine]

I looked closely at the headers and they seem legitimate, but there's so much spoofing going on, and they are very clever at it. The uncertainly is there, and if it is legitimate, I don't think it's a good way of Google communicating.

I'm probably going to ignore it.

[PCInk]

Can you still log into the old AdWords account? I would think any refund or a message about one would be in there.

[engine]

Yes, I would have thought so, too, PCInk. I can log in, and there is no such message in there.

The odd thing about the message is if it were phishers, how did they get various stats and info about the account? If it was already compromised they would be away with the jewels by now. It appears not to be so.
If this really is Google, it's a bad, bad way to communicate, especially with all the phishing going around.

[keyplyr]

6 or 7 years ago I had a telephone call from a Google guy while I was driving. I didn't believe him. He had to convince me he was who he said he was.

It wasn't about money though, it was about one my my videos he was going to put in the video snippets on the SERP. He wanted my permission since it was an original tune.

Still I thought it was odd. Never heard of anyone else getting a call like that and I've never received another one.

[lucy24]

Phishing for what, though? What action were they asking you to take? Obviously nothing as blatant as "click this misspelled link" (leading to name-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-google dot implausible-tld) or you wouldn't be left scratching your head over the whole thing.

[tangor]

Or might be an accounting ploy in which you WERE notified, but failed to respond and they can keep the dollars.

Not a conspiracy theory, merely recognition of the same thing over and over in the rest of the real world and how mega corporations work. Back in the old days it was a business class letter that ended up someplace else. These days an email is so much cheaper.

Only question I have is did they mention the AMOUNT in question? Lacking that you're in the dark.

Expectation in these kinds of notices is between 30-60 days for a reply and failure for action absolves any further requirement. (Thus keep the money).

NOT SAYING THAT IS WHAT IS GOING ON.... just remarking on how similar it seems to past practice in other business/customer relations.

[engine]

>Phishing for what, though?

It's an old account, and the credit card is long expired, so they cannot refund it. It requires me to use a payment processor. I'm not going to be fooled, but it really is only Google that would know the account details and funds involved.

>Or might be an accounting ploy in which you WERE notified, but failed to respond and they can keep the dollars.
Yes, that's my thinking, too.

>Only question I have is did they mention the AMOUNT in question?
Yes, it did, but if it's phishing it could be a guess.
It's not a huge sum involved, but if it's money owed, it should be returned, no matter how small.