Invalid Clicks

[Teddy]

Has anyone else been ban for invalid clicks by the Google adsense monster?

Was it unjustified? Did you actually have invalid clicks? Did they not give you a chance to explain or not take the possible reasons for the high click through rate?

I'm trying to see if my problem has occurred to many others or was it isolated. Please do respond because I might take legal action, I just need to see if others have had the same problem.

 

[BillyConnite]

Remember with Google invalid clicks does not necessarily mean you clicking on your own ads.
It can mean any violation of the TOS such AD clicks from non-content-based pages, clicks from pages with excessive advertising, even clicks form pages where the other ads on the page are advertise alchohol, beer, replicas or imitation products,etc...the list goes on..as listed in their TOS.
An Example would be placing the google ads on the same page where there is another ad for poker or gambling...any click on the google ads from this type of page would be considered an invalid click...
It would be wise to check your sites, if it has any of violation of their TOS.

True, I never thought of that. Thanks for sharing.

 

[allinone]

IT HAPPENED TO ME TO
I am in the process of appealing my ban. But i doubt it will work. I agree it really does suck.

 

[drifta]

you guys tried ringing google? ive had better answers and responces from them when ringing

 

[dongan]

Taking legal action with google will be a big thing! Google will win! they can pay for the best! Just watch out for yourself!!!

Good Luck!

HaHaHa. Noone is ready to lose their way. It does't matter whether it is big or small in case of las-suits. It will suit to the people who is legally correct. There is no rule that if an organization like google can always win the war.

 

[Scott]

you guys tried ringing google? ive had better answers and responces from them when ringing

What number do you suggest for contacting Google?
Thx.

 

[Ringr]

I would try reaching them at this phone number: (650) 253-0000, which Google lists as their phone number on their contact page. Not sure if that's the same phone number Parked.com has in mind, but I thought I'd mention it nevertheless.

@Scott: do you still own AdsenseSucks.com out of curiosity?

 

[bojianh]

Google really is one big fing company. Anyway good luck to you!

 

[TT]

All its going to take is one lawsuit for google to fall. Why is it so many of you continue to think google has this wall that cant be penetrated? Sooner or later either someone or some government will take google down for there practices whatever they may be. I remember days when people much like you domainers here that claim it will never happen and such things did happen and the big guys have fallen.

One big loss and google will be another ENRON out of business leaving many shareholders standing with wortheless paper dangling in the wind.... One Day folks who knows it could be the author of this thread.

The only time i see any praise around this forum is when someone brags they sold domain such and such for so much money, Non of you are really happy for the person as your writting how happy you are for them you are thinking to yourself damn i wish they had bought my domain.

Schoolsux if you have the dough to do it I wish you the best of luck because this is not the first time or the first forum I have read this topic on. I think someone should sue google it would look good on them.

 

[Gene]

Sheesh, who pee'd in your Cheerios?

All its going to take is one lawsuit for google to fall. Why is it so many of you continue to think google has this wall that cant be penetrated? Sooner or later either someone or some government will take google down for there practices whatever they may be. I remember days when people much like you domainers here that claim it will never happen and such things did happen and the big guys have fallen.

One big loss and google will be another ENRON out of business leaving many shareholders standing with wortheless paper dangling in the wind.... One Day folks who knows it could be the author of this thread.

The only time i see any praise around this forum is when someone brags they sold domain such and such for so much money, Non of you are really happy for the person as your writting how happy you are for them you are thinking to yourself damn i wish they had bought my domain.

Schoolsux if you have the dough to do it I wish you the best of luck because this is not the first time or the first forum I have read this topic on. I think someone should sue google it would look good on them.

 

[Alex222]

Folks! Google choose what is right. You just can bring a suit against Google.
And then tell us how it was.
But i think they dont ban you for nothing! Right?

 

[ingenuity1996]

Unjust ban and association of banned accounts from adsense

Has anyone else been ban for invalid clicks by the Google adsense monster?

Was it unjustified? Did you actually have invalid clicks? Did they not give you a chance to explain or not take the possible reasons for the high click through rate?

I'm trying to see if my problem has occurred to many others or was it isolated. Please do respond because I might take legal action, I just need to see if others have had the same problem.

Here is my story, to me google's policy has some issues. If you read my post in the google forum you will understand. For us, as a web developer who has many employees and ip addresses, google somehow thinks that banning every single employee of the company or their personal accounts as well as the employees' familiies' accounts is ok. Hmmmmm

the following is from google forums. a lot of legit users are being banned.

Like many others our company is having a lot of problem with adsense
and being banned unfairly. Several months ago, we have decided to
start testing adsense on one of our amazon affiliate sites. I signed
up using my personal account for my company and gave it to one of our
programmers to implement it into the website. For a while we were
getting irrelavant ads and also a shortage of ads on the page. My
programmer somehow decided to click on the ads to see why the ads are
showing up on our pages that is not suppose to be there. After reading
other forums it seems like google adsense has similar problems on some
accounts. Regardless after a couple of months, when i logged into my
adsense account, it asked me to agree to the TOS and right after i
click yes i agreed and submit, they sent a cancellation email regarding
the invalid clicks. Needless to say that programmer was fired.

I then tried to setup another account on the site under a different
email address and after 10 days they rejected. the email says "Thank
you for your interest in Google AdSense. After reviewing your
application, our specialists have found that it does not meet our
program criteria. Therefore, we are unable to accept you into our
program. "

Its funny because the site was approved previously and nothing about
the site had changed. I then used a totally different email address
and used my wife who has never had an account and they emailed back
after 10 days with the same email.

Then it gets better, I had one of my other employees sign up another
account from his email address using my real first and last name as i
originally registered. We registered for the same exact site and it
got approved! We implemented and I made sure noone touches the ads in
case they cancel us for invalid clicks. We went 3 weeks into the
adsense account, built up about $150 worth of credit. I even received
the pin in the mail and entered it to and it says pin is correct and
now you are setup to receive payments. This morning i found out this
account is disabled by google. This is just plain ridiculous.

Also, i forgot to mention recently i purchased a website that was
previously approved for adsense and i used the web email address from
the newly acquired website and they sent the same generic reply "Thank
you for your interest in Google AdSense. After reviewing your
application, our specialists have found that it does not meet our
program criteria. Therefore, we are unable to accept you into our
program. "

During this last couple of months, i have been trying to email google
adsense and they never reply. I explained to them the situation and
how to recitfy it. Surely our entire company and my entire family can
not be held liable for something stupid that one of my previous
employees did in the past. Worse, my personal account is banned
forever because I setup the original account for them to use. Has
anyone ever had success in getting their disabled account reactivated?
Or is the google adsense program designed this way? to blacklist family
members of one individual, or to ban entire companys and its employees
if one email address within the company is banned? We are in a project
to create about 100 websites with served ads, luckily we have no
problem with yahoo publisher network even though it is in beta and have
bugs. I tried repeatly to email google to ask to speak to someone in
person and noone have bothered to reply. We are a CA corporation with
offices in CA and Russia and I explained to them we do not need to
ripoff a hundred dollars from anyone when we have much more at stake.
Seems like google is not interested in listening or does not have the
courtesy to even make a manager or supervisor available on the phone to
chat. They may be the leader in this business but with yahoo's version
of adsense in beta, can google really continue to stay so arrogant and
unreasonable?

Ted

 

[G_C]

As I see it, AdSense as two main problems:

- They have a gun, and they are trigger-happy - this means that in most cases, any violation seems to lead to the suspension of your account. Granted, it is Google's right to do so, but, as an AdSense user, I feel rather uncomfortable with the notion that the slightest mistake I make (even unknowingly) can result in the loss of my AdSense account. It just seems that Google does not ever give its publishers the benefit of the doubt.

- Lack of transparency - Whenever someone gets banned for invalid clicks, they receive a canned e-mail informing them about the suspension of their account. Those asking for additional information are told that they cannot have access to it, due to the "proprietary nature" of Google's algorithm for detecting fraudulent clicks. I find it rather tasteless that, if I ever get banned, I have to take Google's word for it and cannot appeal their decision (since I have no access to the information that was used to make the decision in the first place).

Now, mind you - I have never ever been banned from AdSense and haven't had any trouble with them. However, it seems that AdSense people are determined to keep their publishers in perpetual fear - a state of affairs that, to me, is entirely unacceptable, and that will probably cause me to switch to YPN the second it is available to non-US users. I am therefore completely in favour of any lawsuit that addresses and remedies the two concerns I raised above.

 

[Dave_Z]

http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/120905_The_Web_Host_Industry_Week_in_Review.cfm

December 9, 2005 -- This week's industry news saw a prominent industry player lead a class action lawsuit against search giant Google. . .

On Thursday, North Carolina-based Web Host AIT announced that it had taken over as the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit that accuses Google of breach of contract and unfair business practices. The company takes over for ClickDefense, which filed the original complaint on June 24, 2005.

AIT alleges that Google has not taken steps to reduce click fraud on its pay-per-click advertisements despite the fact that is aware of the problem.

The negligence, AIT says, has cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars. Google says is still in the process of determining how it will handle the allegations.

One challenge for google is how to keep their most delicate secrets such while
being "forced" to give their side of this story.