The subject was actually in all quotes as to make it seem more important or official: SERVICE EXPIRED, and it was from GOOGLE ADWORDS <center@googleadwords.com>. Hmm. Why not just from Google.com? Google Adwords accounts can actually expire? This was news to me since I thought that as long as they could charge my credit card, they would keep my ads going. Is this legit? Will they cut off my account?

Dear Member, Your Google Adwords account has expired. You must renew it immediately or your account will be closed. If you intend to use this service in the future, you must take action at once! To continue click here, login to your Google Adwords account and follow the steps. Thank you for using Google Adwords! Google Adwords Services DEP Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.

A quick look shows some odd things about the email. Who was it from? center@googleadwords.com, a little flag because it's not directly from Google. Although this display information is EASILY spoofed, so it's not a great indicator of good as much as an obvious indicator of bad. If you received this message from googleadwords@yahoo.com (or especially other known free email accounts), that would be an obvious red flag.

So I took a closer look and sure enough, there it is. I moused-over the "click here" link. I moused-over it, I did not click it. Do not click links in suspect emails. When I moused over, it showed the link in the little pop-up window: http:// nponiji.com/data/gadland/Log-on.htm

There it is. This is my tell tale sign that it is not legit. Why would Google be redirecting me to any site other than Google.com? The answer most likely is that they wouldn't. So be aware and protect yourself. And by all means make sure your running antivirus, antispyware, and antimalware tools on your machine and keeping up with updates. That alone can prevent you if you happen to take a wrong turn.

Happy computing.