Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I suspect my site generated fraudulent clicks yesterday.
On an average I get some 6-8 clicks daily. But the stats yesterday scared me a lot.
One of my custom channels reported 4 clicks with earnings of around $1 which is what I usually get.
But the other custom channel reported some 60 odd clicks for $1.
I think this is a clear cut case of click attack.
I have reported it to AdSense support, but if in case they ask me for more information I only have my Analytics Account. Also as far as I know Analytics doesn't track click activities, so I won't be able to provide the specific 'click' information.
I want to know if I am on the safer side Or what more should I do to be on the safer side.
I just heard of somone who got banned from Adsense......and Adsense owed them $100,000. Adsense said they had "Invalid Clicks" and they will not be paying them. They also got turned down on their first appeal. They claimed they had been playing by the rules and still got burned.
In my opinion again Adsense and Adwords needs to do some major changes in their "Banning" policies.
I mean get real. Some murderers get out of jail after 10 years....but Adwords and Adsense ban you for "Life"
Something is messed up.
Just think if you were the guy owed the 100K. From what I understand they have a large amount of costs tied up as well so its not just a fact of getting paid 100K. They will now be the hole if they dont' get paid.
heyday
where the ** is microsoft and the other big boys?!
[edited by: martinibuster at 11:18 pm (utc) on Feb. 21, 2007]
[edit reason] See TOS. [/edit]
To the OP: If it's any consolation, some of us have been victims of clickbot attacks, have reported the anomalies in our statistics to Google, and are still here. If your site can pass the "sniff" test--i.e., if it's a site with useful content that doesn't appear to have been created solely with AdSense in mind--you probably have less to worry about than someone who's playing closer to the edge does. (Remember: Google doesn't want to terminate publisher accounts without good reason; fewer accounts = fewer pages = fewer ad impressions = fewer clicks and revenues for Google.)
I had what looked like a clickbot attack just a few days ago (5x normal clicks by clicktracking *my* stats).
I told AS support ASAP.
The dodgy clicks didn't even show up in my AS account stats, and I still seem to be 'in good standing' with AS.
Rgds
Damon
I want to know if I am on the safer side Or what more should I do to be on the safer side.
I think you are. I have no reason for saying this, no evidence of any sort. As heydey said, innocent people do get banned. I doubt too many guilty people report themselves though. Again, I have no concrete evidence to support any of this. Just a gut feeling. I think you did absolutely the right thing.
Google would obviously be able to identify the issue with the click pattern in a decision regarding an amount that large.. whether they'll disclose it or not who knows.
My guess is that many of the people getting banned are showing up on trend trees.. IP's that commonly visit eachothers sites, IP's that have logged into AdSense control panel from same CPU... I would guess they err on the side of the publisher with a short term pattern, and in some cases whatever they have detected is just too blatant for them to ignore.
G is not perfect by any means, but it is not some sort of teenage sociopathic vigilante gang sniggering behind its hands each time it steals money, raises its cut for no reason of from unalloyed greed, or shuts out a legit publisher without explanation, and I simply cannot believe stories phrased in those terms.
It would be interesting to see the intersection between people who do see G in that light, with those who believe that the US/Soviet/Iranian/UK/etc government is wihtholding alien technologies it discovered after hush-up UFO crashes for example. High, I suspect.
Rgds
Damon
I think OP did correct. I'm sure that Goog keeps tabs on our communication with them and it's this history of communication that helps establish ourselves as "good guys" and keeps our account in good standing. Very much like any relationship. When you keep the lines of communication open and stay true, the relationship can only get stronger.
Just my 0.005 cent EPC thought ;)
0.005c: has Google been shaving its payouts again? %-P
Rgds
Damon
0.005c: has Google been shaving its payouts again? %-P
Oops sorry ... misplaced the decimal point by 3 places. should read 5.000 . You mean yous guys ain't getting the high paying clicks like moi?
;) ;) ;)
Regarding click attacks what is worrying, that in case you are ill and in hospital, you might not be able to react to any Google email and my partner can read email, but wouldn't have the technical understanding to react appropriately.
There should be at least guidelines from Google for scenarios when you are on holidays or in hospital.
End of february I and my business partner will be away and I will be without ability to check my email for 2 days. Sad that I have to worry that I can't check my email or adsense account for such a short amount of time.
There should be in the adsense interface a button that could defne your status to adsense. That would be a huge improvement. I think one could train once relaties partners to at least check that button to ill, holiday and so on in case one wouldn't be ale to do so oneself.
End of february I and my business partner will be away and I will be without ability to check my email for 2 days. Sad that I have to worry that I can't check my email or adsense account for such a short amount of time.
Matt... mah man... no worries dude. You can replace your Adsense ID with mine while you're away... that way, I can keep an eagle eye out for any mischief via my stats...
Really it's no bother...just think of it as Adsense-sitting... taking care of a fellow Adsenser...
he-he-he-he Bwah-ha-ha-ha (evil maniacal snigger >-) ) ;)
What does competition for Google have to do with reporting fraudulent clicks on one's site?
Nothing. He was responding to the other person's complaint about Google's harsh banning policies,. I think what he was saying was that if Google had competitors who treated people more fairly, it would lose some of its publishers to them, forcing it to be less harsh in how it bans people.
He was responding to the other person's complaint about Google's harsh banning policies,. I think what he was saying was that if Google had competitors who treated people more fairly, it would lose some of its publishers to them, forcing it to be less harsh in how it bans people.
I haven't seen any evidence that Google has "harsh banning policies." If anything, it may be too lenient, to judge from the vast numbers of scraper sites and other junk sites that run AdSense ads.
that in case you are ill and in hospital, you might not be able to react to any Google email
I know the feeling.
I watched John Stossel's 20/20 program called, "Scared Stiff" last night. The most interesting part is how we worry a lot about things that are rare happenings. I thought right away about our anxieties as webmasters.
I wonder what the chance of getting dropped from adsense when we are innocent of any wrongdoing really is.
Not zero, but in terms of the only rational way of evaluating these things:
probability of event/banning * cost of event/banning
then the total (or PV / Present Value in financial terms) is almost certainly lower for each of us than a road accident or theft, but higher than the lottery ticket that we just bought.
Humans are good at many things, but rational evaluation of extreme/rare risks/chances is not one of them.
Rgds
Damon
Humans are good at many things, but rational evaluation of extreme/rare risks/chances is not one of them.
Well in the absence of any real data, realistic risk assessment is hard.
It would be a lot easier to estimate the real risks if people would stop shouting GOOGLE == EVIL at the top of their lungs each time their eCPM drops by 1% on a Sunday morning.
Rgds
Damon
There should be in the adsense interface a button that could defne your status to adsense. That would be a huge improvement.
Yeah, a huge brown button when I go to take a dump, that would be great improvement.
They have it. Sure, there are some that don't pay nearly as well, but on the other hand, some can pay better (and I think they will begin to improve a great deal).
If you are smart and design your site properly, getting banned from Google AdSense is not the end of the world. Multiple revenue streams are the smartest way to go.
As to the OP, once every three-four months, I'll accidentally hit one of my ads - I simply drop a note to Google, get the canned response, and move on. Chances are they wouldn't even notice it, but on the other hand, if something weird happens, I've got a history with them that shows I'll report any mistakes/problems I have at the drop of a hat.
once every three-four months, I'll accidentally hit one of my ads
Yes, I think I probably do too. Do I write to Google? No. What would be the point? Even if they don't know immediately that it was an accidental click from the webmaster's own IP address (and I imagine they could analyse that pretty quickly) then it's likely that they are not going to care very much about one stray click about three times a year.
For the sake of courtesy to the webmaster whose site I did accidentally click through to, I do tend to visit three to four pages on their site, just in case it might be something I'm interested in. Usually it isn't and it just bores me silly, but since they paid for me to visit, it's the least I could do.
I too am suspicious of these stories that try to make out Google as some kind of sadistic, unaccountable robber baron who dismisses suppliers on a whim and won't listen to reason. You can't grow a company to the size that Google has grown theirs too if you treat your suppliers like that.
I do agree, however, that it really isn't to the Publishers' advantage that AdSense has a virtual monopoly in the contextual advertising space. Will YPN be opening to any publisher based outside North America any time soon?
