Who do I report click fraud to?

[helexia23]

Actually not who do I report it to, but how is it handled? Do they research it, and give you a credit?

In one month, one IP click on a bunch of very expensive keywords about 100 times.

They were on the page 1 second each click.

[gamb]

yes, report it to your search engine. Be ready for them to tell you it looks like normal traffic....

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Helexia23, here are a couple of headlines:

* All clicks are filtered by AdWords before stats are delivered to your account. So, the fact that you see a 100 'suspicious' clicks in your logs does not automatically mean that you've been charged for all of them.

* If you are attempting to evaluate this, and if you're comparing your logs to your AdWords stats, be sure to account for any time zone differences - and the fact that AdWords stats typically run three hours behind real time.

...one IP click on a bunch of very expensive keywords...

It's worth keeping in mind that some service providers assign the same IP to a multitude of different users.

gamb is correct, BTW, that you'd want address your concerns directly with AdWords support.

AWA

[helexia23]

Thanks for the replies, I will look into it further. If I wasn't paying $13 per click I wouldn't mind so much.

[gamb]

and that's the problem with the current system. If someone clicks on your $13 ad 4 times per day every day for a week, Google will not label that fraud.

If you are lucky they may reconsider when you bring it to their attention, but based on what I have seen you would probably just be out $364 for the week.

[helexia23]

That's just one of my campaigns, I have others that are just as expensive, receiving some very questionable clicks...

For example, I have numerous campaigns set up, 4 campaigns are in the > $10 per click range. I have a couple IP's that click on just a few different ads, a couple times per day, a few times a week (never a conversion). My stats show this IP only visits the landing page for under 10 seconds each time and then leaves.

So this 1 IP, at the current rate of what they're doing would cost me about $36,500 per year... FOR 1 IP! And I see a couple IP's doing this.

I feel like my competitors at the end of the work day say "Oh before you turn off the lights and go home, don't forget to click on everyone's Google ads"... pretty soon your going to see job openings in the help wanted for "Professional Google Clickers"

I'm not happy.

[gamb]

Helexia - I wouldn't be surprised at all if that was what is happening. I'd recommend you try one of the inexpensive click fraud detection tools that uses cookie based tracking. Turn off any "pop up warnings" that appear to fraud clickers so that you can run for a few weeks and can create a data trail to take to google.

When you go to Google show them the reports, times, IP, cookie etc. And if they don't respond write about it here.

Also - be ready for them to say "we don't accept data from outside tracking tools"....though you'd think a company that employs as many engineers as they do could do a better job of tracking fraud...

no wonder they are ranked so poorly in customer responsiveness.