Google AdSense Account Disabled

[Sphosting]

I had my google adsense account deactivated due to invalid clicks. I noticed that there were some invalid clicks when my CTR went up suddenly about a week ago. So I contacted google about it and asked them to please help me. All I got back was a template reply saying that please review the terms and conditions and that any invalid clicks are not counted.

I email them again to ask them to look at my accounts and credit back any invalid clicks and to let me know the ip address/s where the invalid clicks were coming from so I could block them from our servers. I did not get a reply at all.

What happened today, I got an email from google about my account been deactivated.

I sent an email to google stating that I had reported the problem to them, even sent them the replies I got to my questions asking why they did not help me.

This is really bad customer service, I report a problem and rather than help with the problem they just terminate my account.

what can i do?

[demae]

Does Google AdSense have a representative who is a member of this forum by any chance?

[Larwee]

demae, no there is not a Google representative who is a Geek/Talk member. There has been a desire for a long time that there would be a Google representative Geek/Talk member, but there isn't one at the present time.

In relation to this thread started by Sphosting, this recent Geek/Talk thread contains some posts and information related to similar situations. http://www.geekvillage.com/forums/sh...threadid=28483

[Larwee]

Sphosting, it has been a while since I have given a real long detailed answer, so this might be the time to do it.

While rare, people have been allowed back into AdSense after being kicked out. I will tell you what you should have done and what you need to be doing.

However, much needs to be said before that because it all relates to why people are in this position and why they must do things in certain ways.

Several years ago, pay per click programs were numerous and a lot of us who were around then made good money with those programs. Some of the rates were very good.

Most pay per click programs ended up being eliminated because of the serious fraud problem and the lack of the ability to properly detect and deal with it.

Often people get upset with Google and call them all types of names because they have been kicked out of AdSense. While it is easy to understand why a person is angry. People need to understand that Google isn't the problem.

The problem is the dishonest people who try everything they can to try to get as much money as possible. Remember it is the AdWords advertisers who are paying for the advertising. They are the ones who make AdSense possible.

These advertisers should expect to get what they paid for. That is only right. There is no reason to expect these people to pay for something that they shouldn't.

Often it is forgotten that when Google says their is illegal click activity, Google doesn't keep the money. They refund the money to the AdWords advertisers. Neither the AdSense publisher or Google keeps the share they would have earned.

People need to realize that if every single person in the AdSense program played by the rules and didn't try to come up with dishonest methods to try to make more money, or cause harm to others, there wouldn't be any problems. The anger needs to be directed towards these people since they are the cause of the problem. Google is trying to deal with problems caused by these people.

These selfish people also end up hurting some innocent people who get caught up in what they are doing.

Everything needs to be done by Google as well as people who discover these dishonest people. These people need to be eliminated. While it might seem natural to be upset with Google. It is the bad people with selfish desires in mind who are the cause of the entire problem.

If Google would only allow giant sites that belong to multi-billon dollar corporations they wouldn't run into these type of problems.

But, Google has made it possible for even very small site to make good money with their AdSense program. Many people really appreciate this and play by the rules.

At the same time there are some people who don't want to appreciate this for what it is. They are letting greed take over to try to obtain as much money for themselves as possible and they don't care who gets hurt in the process. These are the people you need to be angry at.

People often get upset with Google because they won't give them more details. They want to know what happened. They want to know where the clicks came from or the details on whatever might have happened that caused Google to kick them out.

This is easy to understand and most of the time these are honest people who want to know that. But again, the dishonest people have been ignored.

If Google did this there would be dishonest people who would take advantage of this and do things to try to get kicked out.

When they would get kicked out they could then learn from Google exactly what was detected and possibly learn that they did something that wasn't detected.

You also need to remember that bad people often share information with other bad people and that they sometimes work in teams.

If Google would tell them everything they detected, it would make it easier for the dishonest people to come up with ways that would be harder to detect. It would be a never ending cycle and when dishonest people are being rewarded with money that shouldn't be their money, AdWords advertisers are being harmed.

You said that you contacted Google when you noticed a problem and asked them to tell you the address or addresses of the responsible IP so you could block it or them. Google didn't reply to this.

There probably are many cases where Google really doesn't know if a person is a good person or a bad guy. Some cases they might be more certain. But they just can't take chances, even though they do know that innocent people often become victims of the bad guys.

They just can't tell people what IP has been detected when they ask. Suppose a bad guy is asking this. Suppose that same dishonest person is trying to find out what can be detected and possibly what can't be detected. Knowing what is being detected could be a goldmine to the bad guy.

While you wanted this information for good reasons, a dishonest person could also claim to want it for the same good reason in order to find out what is being detected and possibly if something isn't being detected. They just can't give this information to people who ask for it.

But there is another way this could have been done that might have worked better for you.

You would contact Google in a nice and very friendly manner. Don't say anything bad about them. Show them you are sincere and let them know there is a problem and you want to work with them on the problem.

You would have told them you noticed some illegal click activity. Next would would have given them the IP address or addresses of the illegal activity and told them that you have blocked those. Of course you would make sure that you really did block them. There are ways for people to determine this information for themselves.

You would then make it clear to Google how much you love the AdSense program and tell them that you don't want credit for any of the illegal clicks. You would also let them know that you will work to eliminate any future problem. You would let them know you are sorry for what happened even though you weren't the cause of it.

You didn't do it this way which now brings up dealing with getting back in.

It would be great if you could determine the responsible IP. Remember Google often tells people to check their logs.

You would contact Google and be very nice to them. You can't call them a lot of bad names and expect them to respond in the way you want.

Let them know that you would like to be back in their AdSense program and that you are sorry for what happened. Tell the the address or addresses of the responsible IP and tell Google you have blocked them, after you of course have blocked them.

Let Google know you will do everything possible to stay on top of things in the future and if you see any illegal click activity in the future you will immediately block those responsible, notify google and ask them not to credit you for the illegal click activity.

This may or may not work. But you must be nice with Google to have any hope of getting back into their program. At the same time they don't want to let someone back in who they consider a problem. To them you would be a problem even if you aren't the cause of the illegal click activity since they came from your site, even though you weren't the responsible person.

You have said you knew there was some illegal click activity, so this isn't a case of Google possibly making a mistake, which they could make in some cases.

I have always felt that Google should have higher standards as to who gets into their AdSense program. Also I've always felt it was a mistake to allow a person to have one site approved and then place AdSense codes on every site that person owns. I think Google should require them to have every site approved that they want to use AdSense on.

While doing these things wouldn't eliminate all of these problems, it would help reduce some of them. But Google has decided to make it as easy as possible for people to make money with AdSense. The sad thing is there are some people who just don't appreciate that and have turned to their dishonest nature to satisify their own greed.

No matter how angry you might be with Google, you need to remember the reasons they do things the way they do and why they just can't tell people everything they want to know. They must protect themselves and AdWords advertisers against the bad guys and stay as many steps ahead of them as possible. They also need to keep the program as good as possible for all of the AdSense publishers who do play by the rules, and to make sure that it is possible to continue AdSense and not find it necessary to eliminate it.

If it wasn't for the bad guys, there wouldn't be these AdSense problems that sometimes cause people to get upset with Google. The bad guys create the problems, and we all need to be angry with them and do everything we can to fight against them and hopefully eliminate them.

[onlyreal]

wow what an answer

[OnlineGuide]

Yes, that is true, however, if Google can detect which ads are invalid clicks and they do not matchup with any of the IP's associated with the publishers account, then they should not suspend one's account. I think their ideas on how to handle fraud are outdated. While I am sure there is a valid and strong arguement for the tasks they do to weed out fraud, what happens to the people that are accused of something they did not do? This is why I use them on a very limited basis.

[dognose]

Does anyone know if there is a link between getting blacklisted in Google Search and getting kicked out of AdSense? One of my smaller sites has been banned from google search for some reason.. and I'm wondering if I should stop all adsense ads on that site for fear of loosing my entire adsense account.

[Czar]

Hosting AdSense ads on sites that are banned from Google Search is possible and while it possibly does serve as one red flag against your name, Google doesn't automatically see this as evidence that you're a bad AdSense target.

One of our network domains has been banned from Google since about the year 2000. Google never gave a reason for this and we have never engaged in search engine spamming practices. Nevertheless, the same site that is banned from Google Search has been hosting AdSense ads since the program began. This hasn't caused any problems with the relationship we share with Google, nor does it limit the AdSense bot's ability to crawl and index the site for targeting purposes.

As long as the site that was banned isn't your only site, you should be fine. No doubt Google knows that they make mistakes from time to time and if your account includes several quality, listed sites in addition to the banned property, G will most likely give you the benefit of the doubt.

[Sphosting]

"You would then make it clear to Google how much you love the AdSense program and tell them that you don't want credit for any of the illegal clicks. You would also let them know that you will work to eliminate any future problem. You would let them know you are sorry for what happened even though you weren't the cause of it."

Hi i did do this.

[Larwee]

Sphosting, while you did that, you didn't do the other things that I mentioned before that. For example

You would have told them you noticed some illegal click activity. Next would would have given them the IP address or addresses of the illegal activity and told them that you have blocked those. Of course you would make sure that you really did block them. There are ways for people to determine this information for themselves.

You asked them to supply this information to you, which they couldn't or shouldn't do for the reasons I explained.

[Sphosting]

Hi i asked them to supply the ip addresses, i do admit to that, but if they cannot supply them they should at least email me back an explain why, its basic customer service. If i was in a customer service job and did not email someone back when they emailed me I would get in trouble!

I also asked them to help me and also asked to credit any bad clicks didn't get a reply to thoes questions.

very very bad customer service......

[Sphosting]

I also got an email on friday last week that google was looking into my account which is a good thing, based on the fact that i had contacted them asking for ip addresses and asking for help and the face that i got a templated response back saying that the google system does not credit accounts for bad clicks, when i had told google that getting 250 clicks in one day when i get 10 a day is not normal and i wished for someone to look at my account and credit thoes clicks back to the advertisers.

[James]

Yes, that is true, however, if Google can detect which ads are invalid clicks and they do not matchup with any of the IP's associated with the publishers account, then they should not suspend one's account. I think their ideas on how to handle fraud are outdated. While I am sure there is a valid and strong arguement for the tasks they do to weed out fraud, what happens to the people that are accused of something they did not do? This is why I use them on a very limited basis.

Uhhh well, yes they should be suspended. It's possible for someone to have more than one IP account. And also, to have accounts at several ISPs. These are both things which spammers and ****mers use in abundance.

Also, they have a loyalty to their respectable advertisers more than they have a loyalty to their small-fry publishers, who they can't be sure whether or not each and every one is trustworthy. Like Robert said:

I'm sure that there are legitimate webmasters who get incorrectly booted from programs. I'm also sure that the % is very, very small. Just as I'm sure there are people in prision who are innocent, but you can't scrap the entire legal system because of it. What you can do is take every reasonable and prudent step to reduce the number as much as possible.

[Bondings]

Instead of kicking honest publishers, why don't they start with the obvious cheaters first? Those who ask to click on their own ads?

Let's look at the following text fragment of a tos. I already sent an email about it -twice- to google. The last one 2 weeks ago, the first one over a month ago.

Please click our advertisements on our website to help support us.

The text is still there and the google ads are still running.

I'm sure they didn't even look at those emails, let alone answering them. This is what should change at google. And don't tell me they don't have enough money to hire more people.

[James]

They don't have enough money to hire more people. Golly, what a trickster I am!

I agree: Google's email support s*cks.