Click Fraud

[ganderla]

I had a competitor click on tons of my ads yesterday. They were pretty dumb about it becuase their IP is in my logs. I wrote to OV and have not heard anything yet. Can I ban their IP range? Would I still get charged if they are banned from my site?

Thank you

[bodine]

The answer is yes and no. If they clicked on each of your ads, you will probably get charged once for each different keyword ad. However, you should not be charged more than once for each ad, even if they clicked multiple times. (The exception being if the clicks were at least 15 minutes apart.)

I was told once by OV that they would "block" an IP, but I later found out that they did not do it. I don't know if they can actually do that, but I doubt they would block a group of IPs...it would potentially cut into their revenues.

Make sure you were charged by OV for the clicks (count in your logs vs count of clicks charged), and give them specifics about time/day/IP. You may have to insist on a refund...they will first say their software will filter out fraudulent clicks. Sometimes it will...sometimes it won't.

added: Even if you block their IP, you will still get charged. However, you could redirect that IP to a page that says: "STOP CLICKING ON MY ADS!" That should scare them. :)

[eWhisper]

I don't think OV will block an IP, no matter what they say. However, they did block the click count of some IPs for us.

[ganderla]

It was all from the same IP, it was all the same keyword, and it was like in a 20 minute span that it all happened, and I was still charged.

[eWhisper]

Give Overture a call, or submit a support request ticket. They will ask you to send referrer logs and such. It might take a little while, but usually they are good about refunds.