On Saturday, PPC Live UK Ambassador Boris Beceric brought an important update to the community via the WhatsApp group — two alarming posts from Reddit’s /r/PPC forum, both reporting serious cases of Google Ads account hacks.
Case 1: $50,000+ in Fraudulent Charges
Posted by u/External-Tension9430
A small business owner who’s been running Google Ads for over three years reported waking up to a completely unfamiliar campaign running in their account. It promoted a product they don’t sell and linked to a suspicious third-party website.
- Normal spend: $3–$20/day, up to $1,800/month
- Hack details: Campaign with a $30,000/day budget created without consent
- Total fraudulent spend: Over $48,000 in 48 hours
- Response from Google: No alerts or warnings received; no resolution after 5+ business days despite contacting support immediately and pausing all campaigns
Case 2: 1 Million Rands Spent in Hours
Posted by u/between-space-time
A performance marketer running lead gen campaigns for major brands shared that their main ad account was hacked during a lunch break. The account’s budget was significantly increased, resulting in:
- Fraudulent spend: Over 1 million Rands (approx. $55,000 USD)
- Immediate action: IT team plans to format devices and install more advanced antivirus
- Request: Looking for additional advice on how to prevent such breaches in the future
Conclusion
These two posts have generated significant engagement in the Reddit PPC community and raise important concerns about account security and support response times.
We appreciate Boris Beceric for keeping the PPC Live UK network informed on these developments. Stay alert, and if you’re active on Reddit, you can follow the threads directly on /r/PPC for further updates.
