Report a cloaked ad

How to tell malicious ads from unwanted ads, and learn the steps you can take

What is a cloaked ad?

Some bad ads provide ad servers with a harmless, fake creative and landing page at first. At the time of delivery, such ads change in look and behavior, display sensationalist “celebrity imposter” or “fake news” content, and click through to landing pages that often lead users into fraudulent transactions. These malicious ads are known as cloaked ads.

If you notice such an ad in your inventory, the ad displayed on your content differs from the ad known to our systems. In that case, you can’t look up apparent signals – such as the URL of the cloaked landing page – in Ad Review Center, or use the cloaked URL in a protection rule to block the ad. Please report cloaked ads using the following steps so that we can quickly identify the source of malicious activity.

Other types of unwanted ads don’t use such malicious tactics but you might consider them inappropriate to serve on your inventory. If an unwanted ad does not use cloaking, you can easily block and report it in Ad Review Center (ARC)

Report cloaked ads

Step 1: Take a screenshot of the bad ad

When you report a malicious ad, you’ll be asked to submit a screenshot. The screenshot helps us assess and identify the ad.

In a web browser or mobile app, go to the display ad you want to report.
Take a screenshot of the bad ad. Make sure your screenshot:
- Shows the ad live on a site or in an app.
- Is saved in PNG format, with no prior processing, scaling, clipping, or annotations added. Avoid lossy image compression like JPG, as this would destroy any watermarks that help us identify the ad source. Consult your sysadmin if you need advice specific to your device.
Save the screenshot so you can easily find it later.

Step 2: Complete the support form

Go to the Contact Publisher Support form.
Enter the required information.
Under “Click string,” enter a usable click string.
For instructions, go to Find an ad’s click string.

The click string can come from display ads in web browsers or mobile apps. Usable click strings always contain some reference to our systems, such as "googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?…" or "adclick.g.doubleclick.net/pcs/click?…".
Under “Attach files,” click Choose files. Attach your screenshot of the bad ad.
Enter any other required or relevant information in the form.
Click Submit.

FAQ

What if I can’t provide a click string?

If you can’t provide a usable click string, you can provide a Query ID. Like a click string, a Query ID can help us find the ad source. You can get a Query ID from display ads in web browsers, but not mobile apps.

To find a Query ID, activate Google Publisher Console.

Avoid the “URL method” to activate the console. Reloading the page inadvertently removes the bad ad and its Query ID from your browser window.

What if the methods above don’t apply to me?

Only if explicitly requested, and the methods above don’t apply to you, you can provide an HTTP log.

In all other cases, we recommend against providing an HTTP log with a support inquiry for a bad ad observation. Recording a log file is error-prone, and evaluating a log file is more time consuming than any of the methods above.

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