Sounds a lot more like abuse detection signals firing based on Apple Pay using virtual card numbers.

Apple says that their virtual card numbers protect your privacy because they're untraceable. Ok, but that also means that your using Apple pay is mostly indistinguishable from credit card fraud.

But, you ask, does Google really have to worry that much about fraud? Do people really phish known-good Google accounts, add a stolen card, and then buy a whole bunch of ads?

Well.... yeah. That's actually one of the primary uses for stolen credit cards.