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Get Any Competitors Adsense Account Banned Permanently.

seorefugee.com — An exploit in Google's Adsense program that allows anyone to get anyone else banned. Due to the total lack of appeal process, there would be pretty much nothing that they could do about it.

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mvandemar 2 years 22 days ago, made popular 2 years 21 days ago

355 diggs
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Redscowl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Scary, I must say. I wonder what we can do to absolutely prevent that from happening, except "not use it".... Hmmm.
- Skitzzo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11There's nothing you can do. That's what's so stupid about the whole thing.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4I always get a kick out of kids crying about their AdSense accounts being disabled.
  
  Check out this ***** retard crying about Google:
  http://stason.org/articles/money/how_to_bring_google_adsense_down.html
  
  Then look at this page on his trash site:
  http://stason.org/books/index.html
  
  Congratulations dumb ass:
  http://madeforads.com/archive/2006/09/20/27.aspx
- sniper6121, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16This actually happend to my site. Some person or group clicked on my ads all day for a week and google adsense canceled my account. I called google adword department the receptionist told me no one could help me since Adsense has no human person I could talk to. The way google set this up runs all on computers. So I basically lost all my ad money, which google kept, and I can't deal with google adsense. It definitely is a flaw in their system.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I had someone click so many times one site actually showed about double the clicks that it had pageviews.
  
  I sent Google an email and they thanked me.
- podgey22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10The description is inaccurate. There is an appeal process.
  
  This happened to me early in the year. I appealed and my account got reinstated with all my money as it was. They didn't make up for the week that it was down, but still. I had another advertiser take over for that period.
- mvandemar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5podgey22, you are right, that is my bad. I left out the phrase "a real" before appeal. You can send in one email, which according to Google they will re-look at the banning one time. They still will not clarify what exactly it is that got you banned, however, and beyond that one shot you're pretty much done, as far as I can tell.
- podgey22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Agreed, they're complete arses about the whole thing. I swear there's no people behind the apeal process... Its just a very cold-hearted computer that will only give you back your account and money if you plead enough.
  
  9/10 its just the hassle of having no adverts up while you get your account back.
  
  You've also got to remember that there's reason for google to want to give your account back. Now they've been caught not giving funds back to advertisers over fraudulent clicks, they're very cautious that they do, therefore not making money.
- theone3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Incredibly Ironic adsense ad on digg.
  http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/9040/weirdnesscl6.gif
  (look at the right)
- gmillerd, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Nothing you can do? Gimme a break, Google has awesome customer service. All this nitwits that complain about page ranking and terrible page ad revenue. Google will actually sit with you for two hours and go over exactly how to optimize adwords for your website on the phone. Its part of their business services (yes it does cost some money, which they refund you 100% in adwords, so its free).
  
  Call them about this issue, permanent ban, bah ... sounds like theorycraft to me.
kichus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10probably I would appreciate if those clicks get ignored other than... banning the ads...

I think that's the reasonable way of handling such events...
- Skitzzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I would agree. Although that doesnt get rid of the people that really do ask people to click their links etc. There HAS to be some sort of legitimate appeal process and google should offer tools and tips to webmasters to help combat this issue. Also the publisher ID should be kept private and not sit in the source code for everyone to see.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2The legitimate process is simple. Read the TOS and use their service in a way that is acceptable.
  
  Millions of publishers have no trouble at all with AdSense.
- talman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14@r2d7
  
  You are not getting the point. Even if you are doing everything legit, some competitor can sabotage you without difficulty.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1@ talman - no, I believe there's simply more to this story. Skitzzo was probably doing something retarded, got caught out and lost his account.
  
  The 2nd source he links to is
  http://stason.org/articles/money/how_to_bring_google_adsense_down.html?stason+is+a+dick+hole
  
  That site features a complaint about being "unfairly" banned from AdSense while still displaying AdSense in a ridiculously deceptive fashion designed to waste advertiser's money and visitor's time.
  
  People want to blame Google but the reality is there's a bunch of idiots out there who think AdSense and YPN exist to just give them money regardless of the advertiser coughing up the cash.
  
  There is a mechanism in place to allow site owners to contest a banning, and trash sites not being allowed back in is hardly unfair. At the end of the day AdSense is an extension of AdWords, and AdWords is about advertiser's, not publishers.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2lol, the other two examples of publishers being banned for no reason were his own posts on the blog + forum (the forum post being about his blog post).
  
  You're so credible.
- gmillerd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1It also doesn't shut down your ads, you always have the reserve ads to serve even when google doesn't have ads. You obviously are making up *****.
jimbocook, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The problem is simply that Google, in order to protect their precious algorithms, denies users access to the information that could prove, disprove or prevent fraud. So we have the appearance of Google doing something to prevent and punish fraud but no evidence that they are doing anything meaningful or effective (and some evidence to the contrary).
- mvandemar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Hell, they don't even have to reveal anything beyond what domain it was that your ads were on that got you banned, or add in some sort of rudimentary appeal process. Something. Anything. It really wouldn't be that hard to implement some sort of safeguard.
- Sagags, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I think the real problem is with assholes trying to exploit adsense
rmccarley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8This is so easy its scary. Definately a way to damage competitors.
patator, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1too easy to be true... second option will definitely not work, the clicks will just not be counted. the first option, where you create a non tos compliant page and then put somebody's else adsense id on might work, only in the case the guy has an account earning peanuts. otherwise, his good faith will prevail, cause it would just be plain stupid to do such a thing by oneself if you have a working account already. -> this article is *****
- giantAppleCore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6So you're saying that clicks through a proxy wouldn't be counted? I'd beg to differ, if they weren't, google would be in big trouble... several people use proxy's for a variety of reasons, not all bad... if someone comes to my sites and clicks my ads, regardless of their IP, I expect to get paid...
- Skitzzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You're a fool if you think thats true. Google doesn't just "not count" clicks. If your account is attributed to enough of what they call "invalid links" your account will be banned.
  
  Also, your second point implies that Google favors the publisher's who make them the most money. While that makes sense, I would HIGHLY doubt that google would admit to that.
  
  Both methods would work and frankly you're ignorant or naive if you don't realize that both of these methods (along with more than a few others) would work.
anonymoustroll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Folks, how do you think google makes their money?

They do it by:
1- chopping off the long tail (the $100 payout limit)
2- knocking the intermediate middle over the head with an arbitrary hammer (account ban)
3- making deals with the "short head" accounts

...and they do *all* of this without any supervisory process or chance for appeal. It's like giving used car salesmen a loaded .38 and a license to legally rob people.
corneliousjd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Happened to me, they'll never consider me again now. quite lame.
tehpunk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1the same person that wrote that article is the same kind of moron that thinks paypal will link accounts by using IP only.
afx1, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2*****...doesn't work. Google already knows about these methods.
- TugsMcgroin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I'm sure these methods don't work all the time, just some of the time.
4answer2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"So I basically lost all my ad money, which google kept, and I can't deal with google adsense. It definitely is a flaw in their system."

Not a flaw from their perspective.
- Skitzzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5exactly! Its a flaw and the number of people caught in it is skyrocketing from what I see.
  
  Its only a matter of time before it hits the fan in some lawsuit.
- anonymoustroll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2> Not a flaw from their perspective.
  
  Actually... it does have a huge flaw (sort of). Eventually you run out of Adsense account holders. The *ONLY* mitigating factor is that you don't run out of account holders quite as fast as a ponzi scheme.
farksucks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Actually, these methods DO work. Spend a few months reading some of the black hat SEO forums or IRC channels and you'll quickly find out this stuff goes on EVERY SINGLE DAY.

The problem is that Google's clickfraud detection has basically three components, and nothing else:

1) if you click on ads from the same IP that you signed up for the adsense program with, you're banned

2) if your clickthrough rate goes through the roof (above around 5%) you get banned

3) if you start getting a ton of bot generated traffic through known proxy lists, in order to keep under that 5% clickthrough rate while raising the total clicks, you get banned.

People, when will you learn the emperor has no clothes? Google has no super secret phd brainiac method to determine if a real human is doing the clicking or if its a bot. Did you know that most people who control zombie botnets now don't bother with using them for spam, but rather for defrauding PPC ad networks?

Google's current policy is to instantly ban anyone for what they find are transgressions, unless they're such a big account that it may be worth if for an actual human to investigate rather than lose that income for google. If you're a small blogger, or someone making under 1k a month, and someone pulls this ***** against you, YOU HAVE NO HOPE.

Google can afford to behave like this because basically they have close to 100% of the third-party publishing text ad market. MSN doesnt even have a clone yet, and Yahoo's is still in perpetual beta where most people can't even join. And the second tier networks like adbrite and kanoodle and azoogle are nothing more than scam factories, so most people avoid them.

The only thing that will make Google change is competition. They already had that ***** settlement with Stephen Malouf this year, which absolved Google of all clickfraud claims for the first two years of the company's existence, and paid advertisers NOT ONE PENNY. Stephen Malouf, the guy who wrote up the settlement, got 30 million in cash from Google. Stephen Malouf's other main area of practice is defending the dictator president of the african nation Zaire (democratic republic of congo) against corruption charges.

Google's entire business is based on deception and fraud. The entire point of text ads in the first place was to make people think that those ads werent actually ads, but rather unbiased links on a page. That was the entire concept from the beginning.

Unfortunately for sites like digg and slashdot, most people who've been on the net for years simply learn to tune those ads out, or block them with adblock. If a regular site for say "knitting needles" had the traffic that Digg does, they would be pulling in tens of millions of dollars per year in profit. But digg still can't even break even, with all this traffic, because the whole "blend the text ads in so that people will click them without thinking" doesnt work here.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Microsoft has AdCenter ...
  http://adcenter.microsoft.com/
  
  5% is not an accurate measure. One of my sites has a 16% average for the year and others have above 8%.
  
  For the last 3 months, one of my site's average is 33%, without violating any terms and conditions or incentivizing clicks or engaging in any of the tomfoolery kids who get banned use.
MalDON, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3They should just limit the number of times you click an ad for a specific site per day.
- Skitzzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7They could stop most types of fraud if they WANTED to. The problem is they make a lot of money off it.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Google reimburses advertisers the money you kids steal. Where's the profit there?
- Skitzzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4In my case I had not been paid for clicks almost a year old (I hadn't hit the 100 threashold again). Do you suppose they went back and refunded every single click? I doubt it. The point is, they don't have to prove to anyone that they return it. We're just supposed to take them at their "Do no evil" word.
farksucks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6To this day, Google still refuses to provide the IP address of any clicks they charge you for.

they claim it is a "privacy issue."

Which is a blatant ***** lie, since any website running Google's ads can see the IP of anyone who clicked them! The only reason Google refuses to reveal the IPs for charged clicks is because it makes it impossible for any third party to accurately audit them!

Did you know that from 2003 until march of 2005, Google charged advertisers for TWO PAID CLICKS whenever someone "doubleclicked" on an ad? Turns out that most windows users are so used to doubleclicking everything on the desktop that they do it with ad links as well. During the recent clickfraud settlement trial, the "independent" expert hired by google revealed that Google had stopped that policy only after collecting money for over TWO YEARS. Google didn't offer an apology, nor did they offer to give any of the billions of dollars back.

If the advertisers had been able to see actual IPs connected with the charged clicks, then that whole mess would have been spotted instantly. Two clicks within 1 second from one IP? Obvious doubleclick. But since Google doesnt give you any IPs- it went on for TWO YEARS and made google a ***** of cash.

Google is feeding you guys manure and you think it's champagne. Back when Sergey and Larry bought that gigantic 767 jumbo jet for their own personal use, they issued press releases saying it would be "cheaper" than a regular small business jet because they would be able to fly 80 people at once to world hunger conferences in africa. (exact quote)

Then when the company refinishing the interior of the jet sued Larry and Sergey for not paying their bills on time, he also leaked out some private emails and conversations he had with Eric Schmidt. Eric repeatedly referred to the plane as a "Party Jet" and told the contractor he should keep that in mind.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1You can track the ip's yourself in your own log files. You can also setup your advertisements to link to specific pages so you can associate it with a specific campaign:
  somesite.com/page.php?from=adwords&keyword=whatever
- Skitzzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I couldnt have said it better myself. Some experts estimate that up to 30% of Adword/Adsense clicks are fraudulent. Can you imagine what would happen to the stock if their profits dropped by 30%?
  
  But, I'm sure google would tell us. They're good people right?
farksucks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4r2d7,

There is no way to track any charges Google makes to you as an advertiser. Their "report" only lists the number of clicks, it does not list IPs.

It doesn't matter what kind of logs you as an advertiser keep, you can't reconcile them with Google's click numbers because they intentionally make it impossible.

The only "legitimate" reason for Google refusing to give out the IPs of clicks advertisers must pay for is simple- it allows Google to hide massive and widespread fraud. And since Google has absolutely no auditing or regulation, what else do you expect? There is no disputing the fact that for years Google charged advertisers for doubleclicks. It is in the freaking court records for the recent clickfraud settlement. Yet Google has never offered to refund a penny of the billions they stole through that scam.

After that kind of blatant disregard for any sort of ethics, do you honestly think Google isn't hiding anything else?

Sorry- but in the advertising world of newspapers, TV, radio, magazines, and billboards- there are ALWAYS third party auditing companies that make sure people don't inflate circulation figures and who audit that your ads are actually shown. (at least to extent that if a warehouse filled with a magazine burns down and none of the ads are ever seen by the public, the magazine publisher has to refund the money) People may get up to take a leak during a TV commercial and thus never see a particular ad, but the 3rd party auditors at least check to make sure the commercials were AIRED.

Online advertising is the only advertising media on earth where there is still NO AUDITING AT ALL, OF ANY KIND.

Why is that? ***** this google feel good ***** of "trust us" .. That's not how business works. Google only gets away with it because they are currently a near 100% monopoly.
perfectsquare, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0This simply will not happen. I am surprised this is on the front page. ?

Google has actual people addressing issues of fraud, personally. There is not some weird algorithm that automatically bans Adsense accounts. The system definitely flags suspicious accounts, but an actual person must actually 'ban' them. If you have 20 views per hour, and suddenly there are 500,000 views per minute...that is a flag. Google looks at the activity during that time. If it is suspicious, flagged. They can definitely determine if someone is trying to get a person banned, or if someone is doing it themselves. Sorry to burst your bubble.
- jimbocook, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Can you give us the name of ONE person involved in the process. A way to contact them would be nice but maybe expecting too much.
  
  If not, how about a copy of one email from Google on the subject that is not a form letter.
- Skitzzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Oh really? You ever tried it? Have you ever had your account banned? Do you work for Google and know that they have people review the accounts before banning them?
  
  Here's a tip, do a search for any of the text in that automated response they gave me. You'll find thousands of results all the same. Google doesnt even offer customer support for Adsense for crying out loud. They don't report to anyone, they aren't reviewed by anyone, and they arent regulated by anyone. What is to keep them from dropping your payouts all fo the sudden? Maybe they have a bad month and decide to pay you one cent per click? Is that cool by you? No? Too bad. They can do it. Oh and without telling you at that. Anyone else seeing a problem here?
ross., on 10/12/2007, -0/+4google_ad_client = "pub-7489042062340760";

hehe...anyone?
Avili, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This will definitely work, I'm pretty sure that it would work - I'm tempted to set up a dummy account on google and test it - or maybe test it one of those ad portal sites that we all hate.

Anyways, I'm surprised that people honestly believe that Google cares and actually devotes time to protecting publishers. I mean Google survives on the revenue made through AdSense, and its so profitable for them that they are able to increase the amount of services available. They first started reducing the amount of money on PPCs based on the traffic of the site, so if your site receives less traffic - you'll get more PSA ads (pay nothing), and you'll get lower keyword ads. So all those people who have ad like 1k of traffic a month but still find themselves at $0.10 fit in to this category.

Google really doesn't care whether the clicks were fake or not, and unless your a major site like Digg (with enough power to rebel and start a bad pr campaign against google), they're not going to re-instate your account. They simply profit more from you losing your account, then you continuing to earn them cash. They'll cancel your account, and keep the cash!

ALSO does anyone know whether Google returns money to Advertisers that have lost money because of click fraud? If they shut down an account because of clickfraud, why do they keep 100% of the money, when the advertisers should get a bit of the money back?
xr56n44, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4excellent! let's get *ALL* adsense accounts banned for a better websurfing experience.

google is evil
UnderLoK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I too was banned ages ago. One of our users must have used a script or alike to automate ad clicking on our site. Long story short, my appeals fell on deaf ears and I'm perm banned (not that my site is active anymore anyways, but still).
waynedcam, on 02/11/2008, -0/+0If you have a Google Horror Story to tell, please fee free to join http://www.googlehorrorstories.net. We are a RSS enabled article site. Please feel free to submit your Google horror story article to us, so we can share it with the world in the hopes that we can effect positive change at google.
MarMatthias, on 09/24/2008, -0/+0I wrote an article about this issue in regards to the AdSense policies and how an adsense member has no recourse to defend them selves. A well placed advertising campaign can also get an AdSense member banned. My article is here:

http://digg.com/odd_stuff/The_real_meaning_of_Goog ...
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