Click Fraud

any way to prevent it?

[Jakes Redding]

Hello,

I’m at the edge of the pond getting ready to dip my toes into AdWords for the first time. However, I have a question about click fraud. Is there any way to prevent nefarious people (like competitors) from running up your bill, like if you see the same IP clicking on your keyword ad(s) repeatedly in a short timeframe to exhaust your limit? Does Google provide a way to deal with these chronic offenders so you don’t have to pay for their unscrupulous actions?

[kneoteric_V]

I am as keen as you in hearing the answer of this question...

[bears5122]

I think competitors clicking on your ads should be the least of your concerns. I'm fairly certain Google does a good job of ensuring that those clicks aren't abused.

You should be more worried about fraudulent sites in the search and content network. While it will depend on what industry you are in, you can often find sites that popped up a couple days ago sending 3-4 times the traffic of Google itself. While easy to catch, you could spend all your free time sending reports to Google for the fraudulent traffic.

So what I'm trying to say is to be less worried about the 5 or so clicks a competitor might ding you for, and be more worried about the 2,000 some fly-by-night site will send you of complete crap traffic.

[kneoteric_V]

"... be more worried about the 2,000 some fly-by-night site will send you of complete crap traffic."

Is there any way to take a proactive measure?

[justageek]

Is there any way to take a proactive measure

Proactive measure? If you mean to be proactive in stopping it before it starts then no.

But if you mean to be proactive after the first click then yes. The easiest way that I know of to stop it before it gets out of hand is to programmatically check each referring site clicks come from. I've set our scripts to spider each page immediately and either take action through the API if a less desirable site is found or let a human run through the info in our reports and decide what to do.

JAG

[ffctas]

I have come across, what for me, is a new scheme. An ad is displayed on google and then referred to a made for Yahoo Search page. From that page I am getting hundreds of clicks to my site.

Yahoo says I can't block these sites and does not seem to be interested in helping.
Any one else with same issue?

[Jakes Redding]

I have a particular case with one competitor, the company I used to work for. Left them two years ago to start out on my own. Inside sources tell me one particular guy has a h@rd-on. Just went live with my site last week. On that very same day, he found me, printed out my site (pdf’s) and distributed it to the engineering staff asking if there’s any way to sue me. They said no, but he still wants a nuisance suit.

I fully expect this b@stard to click on my AdWords 2,000 times a month. He’s that kind of a jerk. If I have their IP, can/will Google block them before the funny business begins, or do I need cause?

I'll worry about the other kinds of fraud when I notice them. In the meanwhile, I'm reluctant to engage AdWords.

[kneoteric_V]

Had these all been going all around the globe, and the G or Y shows reluctance, what can we possibly do to counter them?

The latest incident regarding rivalry is extremely unjust and painful...

[bears5122]

Is there any way to take a proactive measure?

Turn off search and content network is the best bet if you don't want to worry about it. You can file daily click fraud reports, but it can be very time consuming. They really don't care who sends you traffic anymore as long as they get a cut.