I had not checked my adwords account for 2 days and when I logged in I noticed somebody had changed my bid of the term "college transcripts" of 0.10 Euro cents to 19 EUROS. I was being charged on average 6.75 Euros per CLICK. I have emailed adwords support and I am waiting for them to get back. Total cost for that term, usually a few Euros per day, jumped to over 200 EUROS a day. Hope google get back to me soon.
There's a change log in your account that will show you who changed the bid and when. Look in the tools section of your account.
I can confirm that there was definately unaouthorized access to my account by "me", or somebody who had logged in as me. I have not heard back from google yet. Fortunately, I had made in commissions, just a little over what this hack cost me. Only a couple of dollars more, but at least i'm not technically at a loss. If I was having an average bid of 6.75 Euros per click. Who was bidding against me up to that amount? Impossible right? This was quite a shock for somebody who never pays more than 0.10 per click. Hope google get back soon.
If the change log shows the change was made by you (your user/pass) I highly doubt they will refund you or do anything about it. Protecting your password is your responsibility, not theirs.
Just because it was costing you 6.75 to appear top doesn't mean that the second bidder was paying anything like that - they may just have a better Quality Score...
So someone hacked your account and left your referral URL intact? Just changed your bids? They must have been VERY stupid. If you think you are entitled to a refund.... hmmmm, why don't I increase all my bids to $10 for a few days, get a load of traffic and conversions and just "claim" I was hacked?
Why would we do that? We have been adwords users since adwords started. Thanks for the vote of confidence though. Appreciate it. P.S. It was obviously someone with adsense that did it!
So you are saying 1) Someone noticed your ad displaying in adsense on their site. 2) They hacked into your account and changed your bids 3) Waited for someone to click on their ads on their site to get a better CPC?
Hi, Just to let everyone know. Adwords have refunded the money that we lost due to the hack, simply saying it was a "glitch". They took into account the fact that we have spent over 1000 Euros per week with them since adwords was formed. I guess they realise that it is better to pay back 200 Euros than lose a 52000 Euros per year adwords client.