Invalid click spam from Newcastle, UK

[pastellia]

Has anyone else noticed a huge increase in clicks from Newcastle these last few months?

A lot of our revenue for April was taken as being invalid, and we've been heavily monitoring raw server logs to locate the perpetrator. We've banned some IPs already and will continue to do so, but none were listed as being from Newcastle specifically. There was a large amount from Brighton which we banned though, and the clicks seem to be slowing, but it's too early to tell.

Has anyone else been experiencing this?

[levo]

Did you check your Analytics report for Adsense data. Go to Geo report, and switch to Adsense tab to see if you have unusually high CTR from that city.

[pastellia]

Yes, of course. That's how I was able to find out that the spam is coming from Newcastle.

I'm still not able to find any spam IPs from Newcastle specifically despite having blocked a lot of other IPs. The clicks continue. I've removed my ads for now, but have no idea how to proceed. Even with Analytics information like physical location, browser, operating system, I can't find the IPs in raw server logs and have no clue what to do.

[not2easy]

If it is at all possible that someone might have scraped/copied your page(s) where you are seeing this unwanted activity, you can use a unique phrase from your content to search for copies. Sometimes people paste up content they've bought or stolen without removing the AdSense code - and even the GA script. Look for a unique snippet of text on the page (if known which page/s are involved) and search with the "phrase in quotes" to find your content - if that is what's going on.

[pastellia]

I tried, but it doesn't seem like it unfortunately. This appears to be happening to others too, as evident from these threads:

[support.google.com...]

[reddit.com...]

[levo]

Try to triangulate, eg. first select the city with high CTR, than select 'browser version' from the primary dimension menu. You won't be able to select a version, but add 'Page' as secondary dimension. Now, go to Adsense tab, sort by clicks.

You should be able to filter suspicious visits from your logs by using 'browser version' (user agent) and 'url.'

Bonus tip: To check scrapped content (that generates Adsense impressions) go to Audience > Technology > Network. Select 'hostname' as primary dimension. And switch to 'Adsense' tab. You'll get a list of domains that displayed your ad code. (scrappers, http proxies etc.)

Good luck!

[JorgeV]

Hello,

Do all these IP belongs to the same AS? If so, you can simply block the whole AS.