6 ms·

Happened to me too when i was a student, earned $300, tried withdrawing and they just froze my account, for "fraud clicks". It's Google's long tail business mod

by _rrnv 3y ago

Happened to me too when i was a student, earned $300, tried withdrawing and they just froze my account, for "fraud clicks". It's Google's long tail business model to not filter fraud out on the go and instead just lead small site owner on. On a global scale I expect billions in additional revenue, but no global court to challenge Google with a class-action. Maybe someday...

pests 3y ago
I earned a couple hundred with them too when I was young. Never claimed it. They eventually released it to my states unclaimed property system and a decade later I got it from that.
JohnMakin 3y ago
They got me on a hobby site for about $5k. No real reason given, just rejected my ID verification with no appeal possible. hundreds of similar stories out there
- miohtama 3y ago
  There was an era when Google’s slogan was ”Don’t do evil.” It was so long time ago that most of have not even heard about it today.
  - pie420 3y ago
    Don't be evil. Funny how even you don't really remember it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil
    - pixl97 3y ago
      Don't be [caught doing] evil. Someone just paraphrased that in the company memo.
  - olliej 3y ago
    Yeah it's not been a thing a google for at least a decade. When I went to work for them the onboarding did not have that phrase anywhere in any of the documents (onboarding, training, or orientation) - and I explicitly searched for it.
    - SquareWheel 3y ago
      They didn't ask you to read the Code of Conduct? It's been in there from the beginning. https://abc.xyz/investor/google-code-of-conduct/ https://abc.xyz/investor/google-code-of-conduct/
      - olliej 3y ago
        They were noticed publicly removing it in 2018 (which was reported on), so I'm guessing I came on during a period it was gone, and they have since re-added it.
        jkaplowitz 3y ago
        Most of the public reporting was incorrect. The phrase never left the Google code of conduct, but it did move to a less prominent position, and the closest thing that has ever been in the code of conduct of the parent company Alphabet since its creation in 2015 is “Do the right thing”. “Less prominent position” does not mean “zero prominence”. A mention in the final sentence is not anywhere near as prominent as it was before the change, but that’s still more prominent than something like hiding it in the middle. Now, their adherence to the phrase has certainly decreased over time and was never perfect. That’s a separate matter. Disclosure: I used to work for Google, but not since before Alphabet was created (which was some years before this Google code of conduct change). I never had any involvement in the decisions over this motto or the changes to where it shows up, beyond of course trying my best to adhere to it in my own work.
        SquareWheel 3y ago
        It's listed in both January 2018[1] and December 2018[2]. They moved it from the opening line to the closing line, but they did not remove it. https://web.archive.org/web/20180117100018/https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html https://web.archive.org/web/20180117100018/https://abc.xyz/i... https://web.archive.org/web/20181225060308/https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html https://web.archive.org/web/20181225060308/https://abc.xyz/i...
- plagiarist 3y ago
  I'd go to small claims over $5k.
bpodgursky 3y ago
> It's Google's long tail business model to not filter fraud out on the go Well the honest answer is that it's harder for clickfraud farms to hyperoptimize against detection algorithms on-the-fly this way. This makes it harder for them to figure out exactly what pattern is flagging the algorithm.

by _rrnv 3y ago

pests 3y ago

I earned a couple hundred with them too when I was young. Never claimed it. They eventually released it to my states unclaimed property system and a decade later I got it from that.

JohnMakin 3y ago

They got me on a hobby site for about $5k. No real reason given, just rejected my ID verification with no appeal possible. hundreds of similar stories out there

miohtama 3y ago
There was an era when Google’s slogan was ”Don’t do evil.” It was so long time ago that most of have not even heard about it today.
- pie420 3y ago
  Don't be evil. Funny how even you don't really remember it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil
  - pixl97 3y ago
    Don't be [caught doing] evil. Someone just paraphrased that in the company memo.
- olliej 3y ago
  Yeah it's not been a thing a google for at least a decade. When I went to work for them the onboarding did not have that phrase anywhere in any of the documents (onboarding, training, or orientation) - and I explicitly searched for it.
  - SquareWheel 3y ago
    They didn't ask you to read the Code of Conduct? It's been in there from the beginning. https://abc.xyz/investor/google-code-of-conduct/ https://abc.xyz/investor/google-code-of-conduct/
    - olliej 3y ago
      They were noticed publicly removing it in 2018 (which was reported on), so I'm guessing I came on during a period it was gone, and they have since re-added it.
      - jkaplowitz 3y ago
        Most of the public reporting was incorrect. The phrase never left the Google code of conduct, but it did move to a less prominent position, and the closest thing that has ever been in the code of conduct of the parent company Alphabet since its creation in 2015 is “Do the right thing”. “Less prominent position” does not mean “zero prominence”. A mention in the final sentence is not anywhere near as prominent as it was before the change, but that’s still more prominent than something like hiding it in the middle. Now, their adherence to the phrase has certainly decreased over time and was never perfect. That’s a separate matter. Disclosure: I used to work for Google, but not since before Alphabet was created (which was some years before this Google code of conduct change). I never had any involvement in the decisions over this motto or the changes to where it shows up, beyond of course trying my best to adhere to it in my own work.
      - SquareWheel 3y ago
        It's listed in both January 2018[1] and December 2018[2]. They moved it from the opening line to the closing line, but they did not remove it. https://web.archive.org/web/20180117100018/https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html https://web.archive.org/web/20180117100018/https://abc.xyz/i... https://web.archive.org/web/20181225060308/https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html https://web.archive.org/web/20181225060308/https://abc.xyz/i...
plagiarist 3y ago
I'd go to small claims over $5k.

bpodgursky 3y ago

> It's Google's long tail business model to not filter fraud out on the go Well the honest answer is that it's harder for clickfraud farms to hyperoptimize against detection algorithms on-the-fly this way. This makes it harder for them to figure out exactly what pattern is flagging the algorithm.