$1600 promotion scam
Signed up for Google Ads, saw the offer "spend $800 in 60 days, get $1,600 in credit". Took it, built 2 campaigns.
I spent way more than $800, hit the requirements, kept spending for another 35 days while they were "verifying" only to have the status flipped to "Invalidated."
Their reason: I'm not a "new advertiser" because their system detected a "prior association" - some shared billing profile or domain.
I've never had a Google Ads account. They claim an association, won't say what it is, won't review it.
But here's the part that actually pisses me off: if the check is "fully automated and hardcoded," it runs instantly. It could run at signup and never let you even sign for the promotion. Instead it runs after you spend and it takes another 35 days (of your spending) to verify. They showed me the offer, let me select it, tracked my progress toward it for two months, and only mentioned I was ineligible once the $800 was gone.
Sounds a lot like a scam to me.