Buying a site that violated TOS unknowingly

[dzcap]

For example: You buy a site, then put your adsense code on it. But the previous owner did something shady to boost the site's worth and you didn't know about the previous owner's shady practices.

Google finally catches on and terminates your account. What kind of protection do you have for something like this?

[europeforvisitors]

Easy: Don't buy sites unless you know their history, or--better yet--don't buy sites at all. (Roll your own.)

[dzcap]

What if you thought you know the their history but you still end up with a shady site?

Mainly I just want to know if Google take these things into consideration before taking action:
1. Whois information showing the date of the transfer.
2. The fact that your adsense code was not on the page before.

I know you can provide sales receipt, etc. if you do get terminated due to the new site, but I still wouldn't want to lose a couple days of revenue for this.

A better example:
A shady seller have their own forum to promote the site they're selling and makes numerous posts in his forum telling people to click the ads on that site. Google eventually finds the posts about clicking, maybe even months after you bought the site and terminates your account. Do you have no recourse against something like this?

[Rodney]

I don't think Google will care if you bought a site from a shady seller. That's between you and the seller.

If the site is banned from Adsense, then the site is banned.

The best you could do is email Google and ask for an appeal.

[dzcap]

I know a banned site is a banned site. I am talking about your account being terminated in connection to the bad site you just bought unknowingly.

So what I asking is if your adsense account (not the bad site you bought) have any type of protectioin against something like this.

[europeforvisitors]

If a change of ownership wiped the slate clean, ex-AdSense publishers with banned sites would just find new "owners" to launder AdSense earnings for them.

[hyperkik]

Didn't somebody say something, a couple of months back, about Google verifying that a particular site they were buying was "clean"? (Or was it the opposite, with Google verifying that a site had been terminated for TOS violations and would not be welcome back in the program.) Either way... I would check with Google.

[dzcap]

I agree sites that are banned should not be given a clean start even after a change of ownership.

But what I am asking is if Google would ban just the site you just bought or would they be terminating your adsense account.

Please take notice on the difference:
1. A site being banned from displaying adsense ads because of the previous owner's practices.
2. An adsense account being terminated because of the connection to the site you just bought.

I don't have a problem with #1, I can just get a refund, chargeback, etc. For #2, how would you feel having your account being terminated for something you did not do?

[aeiouy]

There is an e-mail address for Google Adsense.

Seems like it would be reasonable and prudent to check with them before you bought a site that you intended on putting adsense on.

If you decide not to heed that advice, I recommend at the very least you ask them to check out the site before you actually start running ads on it. Worst case then is you are out the cost of the site, unless you find other streams of revenue for it.

I don't mean to be offensive, but the answer to this seems pretty simple. Why would you first inclination not be to check with the people whom you think might have an issue with it? Google is not your mom, it is a business partner and a customer. If you want to have a healthy business relationship, then it would be reasonable and prudent to contact them to see if they have any issues with a site you might be buying.

That being said, I don't know if they would divulge that information or not.. but it would certainly not hurt to ask.

[frox]

I haven't found it now, but I recall reading a few months ago a posting here where some user was saying he had asked G about the "cleansiness" of a site before buying it.

So, just ask Google if it's banned.

Otherwise, ask the seller .-)

[dzcap]

I know to ask Google first now, don't know why I didn't thought of it before.

Long story short, I acquired a couple sites and didn't ask Google about them before completing the deals, and the sellers seem reluctant to answer some of the questions I missed earlier, so I was just checking if I have any recourse if the sites were bad.

Thanks for all the input.