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Google wasn't mentioned at all in the article, which is somewhat odd... are they immune to this type of fraud? Or at least more resistant?

• dangrossman 13y ago
  They're not immune, but they're among the best at detecting it. They have more traffic and click data to use to identify the patterns than any other company in the world. Most AdWords advertisers would probably be surprised to see that they're only being charged for 75% or less of the clicks on their ads already. They simply never show up in the performance reports or on the bill. To see them, log in to AdWords, click on a campaign, click the "Dimensions" tab, choose the "View: Day" filter, click "Customize Columns", choose the "Performance" category, and add the "Invalid Clicks" column to the report. Now you'll see the huge number of clicks Google received on your ads but never charged you for. It's also common to see adjustment entries on the billing report labeled "click quality". Those are automatic refunds for potentially fraudulent clicks given after-the-fact when they couldn't be caught in real-time.
  • CrankyPants 13y ago
    They've become considerably less transparent about fraud-related adjustments in recent months, both in the UI, and on invoices. Employees who seek clarification tend to get very little in the way of answers. Not saying anything shady is happening, just that they've made big changes and aren't communicating properly about them.