4 ms·

Say you don't agree with a particular site that's using adsense. You could (for instance) have you and all your friends click over and over again on the ads on

by pja 13y ago

Say you don't agree with a particular site that's using adsense. You could (for instance) have you and all your friends click over and over again on the ads on that site, which Google will quickly flag as fraudulent. Any site that attracts a large number of fraudulent clicks is going to get their AdSense account banned. The site owner has no recourse if this happens to them: they agreed to it when they signed up in the first place - Google can drop them for whatever reason they feel like at any time.

sillysaurus3 13y ago
Say you don't agree with a particular site that's using adsense. You could (for instance) have you and all your friends click over and over again on the ads on that site, which Google will quickly flag as fraudulent. Is it really that easy to put a gun to any random adsense user's head?
- LoganCale 13y ago
  Yes.
- matthuggins 13y ago
  Yes, I had it happen to me about 5-6 years ago. Fortunately I had some evidence at the time, and after weeks of trying, I got my account reinstated. But it is very easy to do and probably happens more often than people realize.
- pja 13y ago
  Yeah, it's called clickbombing: http://empireflippers.com/clickbombing-and-click-fraud/ http://empireflippers.com/clickbombing-and-click-fraud/ (NB, Have no idea whether that's a reputable site, but the analysis in that blogpost is reasonably in depth). If you're lucky, you catch it, report it to Google & they just take the income away (as it should be). If you're unlucky, Google decides that you're trying to defraud them & their ad clients and kills your entire AdSense account for all the sites you have registered with them. A scorched earth policy being the best possible policy apparently.
  - torbit 13y ago
    so far nobody has listed how they actually got in contact with google. Is there a certain email? method?
    - sireat 13y ago
      Only recourse that I have seen work is public shaming on a forum that someone high enough in Google notices (like mcutts).
- zatkin 13y ago
  I have lost respect for Google in the sense that they are incapable of responding to people in a timely fashion on bans that could be potentially wrongful.
- antjanus 13y ago
  Yeah, and guess what? You can "purchase" clicks and traffic in order to achieve this. If you get on the tor network, you should be able to find a few places where you can pay (for example) a $100 for 30,000 views/clicks from a random country in the world to hit a site. I'd imagine 30,000 false adsense clicks would do it.

by pja 13y ago

sillysaurus3 13y ago

LoganCale 13y ago
Yes.
matthuggins 13y ago
Yes, I had it happen to me about 5-6 years ago. Fortunately I had some evidence at the time, and after weeks of trying, I got my account reinstated. But it is very easy to do and probably happens more often than people realize.
pja 13y ago
Yeah, it's called clickbombing: http://empireflippers.com/clickbombing-and-click-fraud/ http://empireflippers.com/clickbombing-and-click-fraud/ (NB, Have no idea whether that's a reputable site, but the analysis in that blogpost is reasonably in depth). If you're lucky, you catch it, report it to Google & they just take the income away (as it should be). If you're unlucky, Google decides that you're trying to defraud them & their ad clients and kills your entire AdSense account for all the sites you have registered with them. A scorched earth policy being the best possible policy apparently.
- torbit 13y ago
  so far nobody has listed how they actually got in contact with google. Is there a certain email? method?
  - sireat 13y ago
    Only recourse that I have seen work is public shaming on a forum that someone high enough in Google notices (like mcutts).
zatkin 13y ago
I have lost respect for Google in the sense that they are incapable of responding to people in a timely fashion on bans that could be potentially wrongful.
antjanus 13y ago
Yeah, and guess what? You can "purchase" clicks and traffic in order to achieve this. If you get on the tor network, you should be able to find a few places where you can pay (for example) a $100 for 30,000 views/clicks from a random country in the world to hit a site. I'd imagine 30,000 false adsense clicks would do it.