Friends clicking on Adsense - fraud?

by 60 replies
72
Hey guys,

Some of my friends are aware that I make money per click from google adsense and they purposely click on the ads every once in a while because they know I benefit.

How frequently can they click on these ad without Google thinking that I told them to click on my ads. In other words, how does google know if the clicks are from people you told to click or whether they are genuine clicks....

Thanks,
#search engine optimization #adsense #clicking #fraud #friends
  • More then one time can raise suspicion with Google. I would tell them to never ever click the ads. Google is not stupid and has ways to detect this activity like logging IP addresses for one, it will bit you in the ass eventually if you do not stop it.
  • That is not a good idea. Google will figure out what is going on....then you will probably be banned from using adsense.
    I would tell them to stop asap!
    Like captivereef said it will come back to bite you in the butt!
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    • But what if someone wanted you to lose money per say, and decides to constantly click on your ads in the hope that you don't make any money?

      How does google differentiate between someone doing that to you or your friend clicking on your ads?
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  • your friends live in the same area as you. Looks real fishy. Bottom line is do not try to fool Google for a extra buck or two, they will ban your account and you will lose much more in the long run!
  • Not to mention what it is costing advertisers. It's fraud plain and simple. Don't worry...Google will close your account down pretty quickly.
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    • Exactly.

      Google watches IP's you know; if they see the same people clicking ads on your site every couple of days or hundreds of times in a row they'll figure out whats going on pretty quickly.
      • [2] replies
  • I've had an adsense account for 2 years and I've never had a problem with friends clicking on my ads too much or even at all because we know that it's a great risk of getting banned for life.

    I have a friend that was banned due to click fraud, but he reapplied and opened another account.
  • Yeah, I would definitely make sure my friends wouldn't click on my ads. Actually, I would make it a habit of NOT even telling my friends the URL of my Adsense websites, so they wouldn't be inclined to click away! Then again, if you have friends who live in different countries than where you live, maybe, it may be possible to get away with it if your friends click on your ads? Although, the best thing to do is just don't tell your friends your URL, so don't encourage it either.

    Thanks
  • i go as far as to block my freinds and families IP address's. And never log into your adsense account from any computer but your home PC
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    • Yeah, that's a really good point you make! Right, never log into your Adsense account from any computer but your own home PC. I hadn't even thought about this one.

      Thanks
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  • Never ask your friends to click on your adsense ads cause Big G would eventually see what you guys are ddoing.

    I will never recommend my friends to click on them so I can keep my adsense account with them

    Thanks,
    oling
  • Look, we're all here to make money.
    How cool is it to have friends clicking on ads that the advertiser has to pay for?

    Not cool. Not ethical. Not OK.

    Maybe Google will shut you down... or should I say should?

    I've been an adsense advertiser and the thought that someone keeps clicking on my ad to make money for the site owner is not a very good one. I can see how Google have to protect their advertisers.

    Evita
    • [2] replies
    • What this seems to be really saying:

      You are not smarter than google - accept that. You are risking your adsense account for a few cents (not to mentioning cheating those who are paying for the ads) - and google doesn't listen to excuses after they ban you for violating the terms you agreed to.

      kay
      • [1] reply
    • Well said! Bottom line....Just don't do it. Do you really need the money that bad to be banned? I think not.
  • Exactly as Kay said. You are risking the potential to earn many thousands per month in future just for the sake of a few fraudulent clicks.

    I do not give my urls out to any friends or relatives just in case they think they will help me by clicking on my ads.


    Derek
  • I used to get my first couple of dollars that way to feel like I achieved something but don't ask since.
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    • Three years ago I was banned by Google because my daughter thought she was helping me out by clicking on my adsense ads from her laptop in her bedroom. It took a lot of begging emails to Google to get me re-instated and I am absolutely paranoid about it to the extent that I do not tell anyone about my sites anymore (well,friends and family anyway!)
  • I guess it depends on where your friends are from. If they're in another country and they just click on the ads once or twice and if they click on the ads that are RELEVANT to them, then perhaps that can be an exception. Still, it's a big risk.
  • It may seem like a "high" to earn that money and see that $1.00 you made that day but trust me.. when you get $1000 deposited in your bank account from google each month then you will realize that "high" is much better
  • Yes it does feel good!
  • I wouldn't ask them to do this for you. In time this could be identified as fraud, although probably not likely, it is not worth the extra couple bucks. Just work on re targeting your adsense to your coentent so you get some genuine earnings, and work on some seo and link building to get more traffic!
  • plus it makes Google go after honest publilshers that much harder.
  • Do not adopt this kind of practice as this one is against the TOS of Google. Why you are taking the risk with your accounts for few clicks. Just start building your own websites and you will get benefit more and more once you will start getting organic traffic.
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    • In fact, it is highly LIKELY google will identify it as fraud. And it doesn't take long at all.
  • Google knows everything.
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  • I wouldn't recommend them clicking at all. Google has very strict policies and does quite a bit of tracking. You should let your friends know you appreciate them trying to help you make some money, but that you would rather them not click as it could hurt you (possibly losing your account) in the long haul.
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    • Hey guys,

      Thanks for the responses... But what if I bump into a site of a friend who I happen to not like, and I decide to click on his google adsense 5 times a day in the hopes he loses his google account.

      How would google handle that situation? Would they kill the guy's google adsence because someone was trying to screw him over?
      • [3] replies
  • I guess you better asked your friends not to click your adsense ads more than twice since they usually tracked down PC through hardware and cookies so you might get banned because of them later on if they keep doing it
  • As a content network advertiser your friends may be stealing from me or other fellow warriors....
    something else to think about.
  • Google track your clicks, and you can get penalized or even banned.
  • Nobody wants to mention the fact that if all of your clicks do not convert into sales for those advertisers you will be smart-priced by Google, and all the clicks for your entire account will drop to $0.01 per click? Good luck making any money after that. Just something to think about.
  • Just run a legitimate business and you have nothing to worry about.

    Don't worry about your enemies clicking away on your ads to get your account banned. Google is smarter than that. Unfortunately, competitors clicking on each others ads to cost them money or get them in trouble is the norm, more so for Google than for any of us. So, for some weird reason, I think Google may have just a slight clue as to what they are doing in that area.

    Also, if you ever ran a legitimate business and/or did PPC advertising, you would know how some of us who invest our hard-earned dollars into PPC feel about people like you, who think it is "fun" to get their "friends" to click on ads on your site to make a couple of quick pennies.

    When I research my competitors on PPC, I actually copy/paste their URL into my browser, instead of clicking on their ad. I don't want to cost them money from someone who is not a prospect but just a competitor doing research.

    Grow a consience and you may just succeed in AdSense and other businesses without the help of your friends contributing 27 cents to your profit 3-5 times per week.

    Like I said, follow the AdSense TOS, run a legitmate business, and you don't have to worry about any of those things at all.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Do not roll the dice with google, they will get you and your account will be terminated. I personally do allow friends and family to use mine but only genuinely, i tell them not to click any adds unless they are really looking for something. Never encourage clicking just to see that adsense account fill up!
      • [1] reply
  • Stay out of it. I learned it the hard way when I started out. Oh boy... It still never fails to put a smile on my face remembering the whole thing.

    I got a friend of mine and we started adsense together, got approved together, and seeing that the blogger blogs were not making any, we came up with an "Ingenious" plan of clicking each other's ads.

    Low and behold, after $24 (we were ecstatic at this point).

    Long story short, we got banned together.

    So the moral of the story obviously is, Google is Google. Dont mess with them.
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  • A very good friend of mine got banned because of his friends exceeded the clicks on his website.

    I wouldn't ask my friends to click on my adds.
  • if you do it once or twice don't worry about it. but it's pretty obvious to Google when things look suspicious. For instance, why do your clicks come within 15 miles of each other? Why does the same ip address come back every couple of weeks to click an ad?

    Remember, Google will subtract $ earned from clicks that they feel are fraudulent. Even if your earnings are immediately recorded within the UI. With that being said, if you've only had 1 or 2 of your friends click an ad you should be fine. I wouldn't go as far as to block your friends, families, and second cousins ip addresses.
  • definitely not a good idea, Google is not stupid and will find out, then you will suffer greater loss.
    • [1] reply
    • The THINGS THAT Google Keep Track of....

      IP Address
      If the AdSense click is originated from the same IP Address as the one
      used for accessing your AdSense account, your account is flagged.
      Cookies
      Most home users do not use static IP Address for Internet connection.
      In most cases just disconnect and reconnect will give you a new IP
      Address. But don't forget, Google has set cookies on your computer.
      Remember to clear your cookies...
      FireFox - (Tools->Clear Private Data)
      Internet Explorer - (Tools->Internet Options->General Tab->Delete cookies)
      Other Google Services
      Thinking that you are safe just because you do not access your AdSense
      account? Think again. This time, consider these: GMail, Google Earth,
      Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Toolbar, Google Talk, Google
      Sitemap, Google Desktop, Blogger, Youtube and so on, and so on. With the wide
      range of services they provide, Google can trace the originator of
      most (or probably almost all) clicks.
      Click Pattern 1
      Oh, why this computer / IP address / person is so trigger-click-happy
      on this particular website but never click on the ads on other sites?
      Click Pattern 2
      And why is it that people accessing these sites direct (type-in URL or
      from bookmark) tend to be very active ad-clickers compared with those
      referred from search engine or other sites?
      Click Pattern 3
      And why the ad-clickers like to hit and run, compared with non
      ad-clickers that surf a few pages before leaving?
      Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
      Your CTR may range from 0.5% to 10%, but if it exceeds a certain point
      (probably around 10%), you are flagged.
      Geo-Location
      Used Urchin (Google Analytics) before? (i dont think you know that)
      Then you should know that Google can trace traffics origin down to
      the small town. Different IP doesn't mean much. Unless you site is
      really targetted to one small geo-point, a high number of clicks from
      nearby location will get you banned quickly.
      Hardware address?
      MAC address of the LAN card, modem, and router works almost like a
      fingerprint. I'm not sure if Google can track this, but probably they
      do. They have rocket scientist, remember?
      Advertisers conversion rate
      Ad click is one thing. But does it bring value to the advertisers? If
      none of the clicks on your site translate to conversion to the
      advertiser, you are in trouble. First the Smart-Pricing hits, then
      your AdSense account disabled.
      Search Engine Ranking
      Your website is not indexed on any search engine, not linked by any
      prominent website, but get consistently high traffic? That sounds like
      something is in play. Regardless of whether it is an adware-embedded
      software, spam, trojan clickbot, or intentionally installed
      click-exchange network, it doesn't sound right.
      Webpage design
      How about the "click here" or "support us"? Google has the best search
      engine in the world. Is it really that hard to find those words?
      Combo
      Each of these detection methods might seem rather weak. But combine
      them together, and not many click-fraud can pass-through these
      filters. Even the smartest clickbot will have a hard time.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
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  • Yea I thought about doing this, just getting friends to do it randomly but I don't think its a good idea at all. Google can be super strict about its adsense fraud. Spend more time getting traffic and don't risk your nice adsense account
    • [1] reply
    • I'm still in the learning phases of Adsense, but just added it on 3 of my sites. I had 2 quick questions if anyone could help.

      What if you have a network of friends across the country and you asked them to click on them once? Would Google be able to track & realize this? I don't see how they would be able to track this if all the clicks are coming from a different IP address.

      If Google were not able to track this, then wouldn't it be pretty easy to start a network of Adsense users from across the world that you could get a click a piece from? However, I feel that there would be a higher risk in starting a network like this in the long run since Google would be able to track the IP addresses clicking on each other's ads over the long term.

      Any advice in this area? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
      • [2] replies
  • So now i can ban all my competitors, using some friends from all over the world, clicking into their ads.

    Guys, what you say just doesn't make any sense. Sorry.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Tell your friends to click your ads 50 times a day then. Nothing bad will happen, because that wouldn't make sense.
  • When it comes to Google (and fraud in general), if you have to ask then you already know the answer.
  • Banned
    Clickbomb your friends & see how long you have any friends running Adsense.

    It's fun for the whole family!

    BTW, this thread is 4 years old.
  • That is a good question and I never really thought of that thanks for the answers and great question. Got me thinking.
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    • this thread has become a feast for people wanting to increase post counts.



      this thread has been answered by 2-3 posts already from the original and yet people still keep adding, "yes" "no don't do that" "it's fraud"
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  • In any sense Ethically it is not good. I dont like when someone says that I clicked on your ad...
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