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, since
we 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 mentioned 301 redirects as being the
violation in question. Rest assured that 301 redirects are not a violation of our
Webmaster Guidelines. Note that we do provide information
about some violations in
Webmaster Tools.
If your site previously violated the guidelines and you've made changes to fix it, you can let us
know by filing a
reinclusion request.
[null,null,[],[[["Fake penalty notification emails claiming to be from Google Search Quality are circulating and are not legitimate."],["Google has temporarily paused sending webmaster notification emails to minimize confusion caused by these fake emails."],["Any email claiming a Google guideline violation with an attachment, or citing 301 redirects as a violation, is not authentic."],["Legitimate information about website violations can be found in Google Webmaster Tools, and reinclusion requests can be filed if necessary."]]],["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"]]