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Thursday, May 10, 2007
We are aware that a number of German webmasters have received fake penalty notification emails
that allegedly came from Google Search Quality. These spam emails have created some confusion
about their authenticity, sincewe send very similar email notifications.
Therefore, we clearly want to state that these emails are not related to any of Google's efforts
concerning webmaster notification.
In the original post, we had listed the ways to tell if the email you received was not from
Google. However, as we've temporarily stopped sending emails about guidelines violations, you
can safely assume that any email you receive isn't from us. Note that the emails we sent did not
include attachments. In addition, some of the emails mentioned301redirects as being the
violation in question. Rest assured that301redirects are not a violation of ourWebmaster Guidelines. Note that we do provide information
about some violations inWebmaster Tools.
If your site previously violated the guidelines and you've made changes to fix it, you can let us
know by filing areinclusion request.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eFake penalty notification emails claiming to be from Google Search Quality are circulating and are not legitimate.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle has temporarily paused sending webmaster notification emails to minimize confusion caused by these fake emails.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAny email claiming a Google guideline violation with an attachment, or citing 301 redirects as a violation, is not authentic.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eLegitimate information about website violations can be found in Google Webmaster Tools, and reinclusion requests can be filed if necessary.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Fake penalty notification emails, mimicking those from Google Search Quality, were sent to German webmasters, causing confusion. Google confirmed these emails were not from them and temporarily stopped sending legitimate notifications. Any such emails received should be considered inauthentic. Notably, 301 redirects are not a violation. Previously penalized sites that have been corrected can submit a reinclusion request. Webmaster Tools contains information on guideline violations.\n"],null,["# About those fake penalty notification emails\n\nThursday, May 10, 2007\n\n\nWe are aware that a number of German webmasters have received fake penalty notification emails\nthat allegedly came from Google Search Quality. These spam emails have created some confusion\nabout their authenticity, since\n[we send very similar email notifications](https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/webmaster-communication/).\nTherefore, we clearly want to state that these emails are not related to any of Google's efforts\nconcerning webmaster notification.\n| Updated: Because these emails are easy to mistake for authentic ones from Google, we've temporarily discontinued sending them as we work on ways to provide more secure communication mechanisms. We hope this will reduce confusion.\n\n\nIn the original post, we had listed the ways to tell if the email you received was not from\nGoogle. However, as we've temporarily stopped sending emails about guidelines violations, you\ncan safely assume that any email you receive isn't from us. Note that the emails we sent did not\ninclude attachments. In addition, some of the emails mentioned `301` redirects as being the\nviolation in question. Rest assured that `301` redirects are not a violation of our\n[Webmaster Guidelines](/search/docs/essentials). Note that we do provide information\nabout some violations in\n[Webmaster Tools](https://search.google.com/search-console).\nIf your site previously violated the guidelines and you've made changes to fix it, you can let us\nknow by filing a\n[reinclusion request](https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843).\n| This post has been updated to indicate that we've temporarily stopped sending emails to webmasters about guidelines violations to reduce confusion."]]
