Yikes. Reader Charlie Flint just wrote in with this horror story. The short: Google bills him $3,000 dollars for an Adwords account that he doesn’t actually have. To our untrained eye, this sounds very much like someone has gotten his bank details somehow and is using Google Adwords to funnel money out of his account, but we’re no experts. Can anyone with similar or not-so-similar experience tell Charlie what the hell is going on and what he can do about it?

The story’s after the jump.

Earlier today I tried to get cash from an ATM, and got a “insufficient funds” message. Perplexed, as I should have had enough money to at least cover a $20, I skipped back to my office and checked my BofA account.

To my horror, there were two charges, totalling more than $3,000, from Google Adwords.

Now… I don’t have a google adsense account. I didn’t really even realize what it was until I logged on to their site (its those little ads all over sites).

I call my bank. I can’t actually dispute the charges yet because they’re “pending” and haven’t actually been debited from my account. They recommend I contact Google.

I do so. They seem at a loss. They show no accounts related to either of my email addresses, nor the one URL I “own” (a personal website… I am just a regular working class joe… I own no businesses, nor do I want to assume the costs of promoting the ones I work at). The best they can do, I’m told, is have someone in Billing investigate it. Could take up to 48 hours.

Frustrated and dejected, I call back BofA. Can I cancel my card and put a freeze on my account? Yes… but if Google were to figure out their error and want to do a chargeback or credit to my card, they’d be unable to. And at this point, I can’t afford to wait on them sending me a check after figuring out whatever’s happened here. I’m already going to be overdrawn by $3,000 thanks to these two charges.

So now I wait. I wait for my account to become “officially” overdrawn when the transactions clear “pending” so I can dispute them. Wait for the $ to be credited as the result of the dispute. Wait for Google to get back to me on why I’ve been charged $3k for something I’m utterly unfamiliar with. Wait to buy groceries, since I certainly can’t use my debit card. Wait to see what else bounces while I’m in this “negative zone.”

Maybe I should buy google adwords for “bad customer service.”

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