new Google Ads account is suspended for "suspicious behavior in the payment activity"

[Cuoreimpavido]

Hi, I've got a new client and I created for him Local Services Ads, we went thru the verification process and everything was approved, until we needed to enter a payment method, which immediately caused the account to get suspended with the message: "Your Google Ads account xxx-xxx-xxxx has been suspended because we’ve identified suspicious behavior in the payment activity of your account."
I tried to contact the Local Services team but they told me the suspension is from Google Ads, I filed up the appeal form in Google Ads but got a denial email after 2 days saying: "After reviewing your case and taking your feedback into consideration, we've confirmed that your account was and still is in violation of our Google Ads policies.".

I verified with the customer all the payment details, everything is correct and of course legit. I really have no idea what else to do, when I try to call Google Ads phone support, an automated message tells me this account is suspended and to fill up the appeal form, and hang up the call.

My client is in the US and I'm in Europe. Can that be the problem? Maybe Google Ads flags that as suspicious?

Any suggestion will be highly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Chris Barnard]

So frustrating. I do know that they would flag it as suspicious if the payment method country doesn't match the country of the business - or where the ads are running.

 

[Cuoreimpavido]

So frustrating. I do know that they would flag it as suspicious if the payment method country doesn't match the country of the business - or where the ads are running.

The payment method, the country of the business and where the ads are running are all in the same country, even the same state. The only thing is, I'm the one who created the account and I'm connected from Europe.

Do you think that may be the cause? And if so, how do I fix it?

If that's probably not the cause, what else can it be? Google really doesn't wanna share ANY info about it. When I replied to the appeal denial email asking for more details, they replied back with the exact same message of "After reviewing your case and taking your feedback into consideration, we've confirmed that your account was and still is in violation of our Google Ads policies".

I know that is against the policy to create a new account for a suspended account, and also I wouldn't want to go thru LSA verification again, so what can I try to fix it? Do you think that DMing Google Ads on some social media platform may help?

Many thanks!

 

[Professor M]

If the same payment details are used in more than one Google Ads account (for example the same credit card details), it could be the reason

 

[Cuoreimpavido]

Thanks. I asked the business owner and he don't believe so but he's also not 100% sure about it. He worked with a different marketing company a few years ago and they might used his cc, but he doesn't have any access to an old Google Ads account.

If that's really the issue - what can we do to fix it without an access to the previous Google Ads account?

The card we tried to use is a Debit card. His wife also have a Debit card associated with the same business bank account. Do think I should try to remove his, enter her card instead and request a new appeal? Is that the right thing to do in this situation?

Thanks!

 

[Professor M]

You can try that, change to the wife's card details, and appeal.
I had 2 clients recently that they had the same issue, in the end, they resolved it by changing the payment details