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Getting Clickbombed. Why oh Why.

by Jacob Martus
24 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey everyone.

So today there has been some really suspicious activity in my adsense account and after some research and lots of scattering around, I've deduced that I'm being clickbombed.

But not your standard clickbomb with 100's or 1000's of clicks. Just 3 or 4 here and 3 or 4 there, but all from confirmed proxy servers and all in 2 or 3 second spurts.

I have sent an invalid click report to Google twice now to notify them and have also removed the website in question from my allowed sites list. I also documented the assault on the Adsense help forum but I'm still freaking out.

Does anyone here have any advice from experience or anything to help me chill out until I get a response from the Adsense team?

I have worked my ass off on this site over the last 4 months and I would hate to lose it all because of a jealous competitor or someone else that has a grudge.

I'm really just venting here but I would also like some words of wisdom from someone who has survived a clickbomb.

There are too many horror stories out there of people losing their adsense accounts and I rely on mine almost exclusively.

Publishing is my passion and it fits me perfectly. I can't see myself doing anything else online...

On top of that, my traffic on the site is the highest it's ever been today so I'm missing out on plenty of legitimate clicks while my site taken out of the allowed sites list.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this in the future? I mean, I can't block every proxy ip address in existence, so basically I'm stuck until this person either forgets about it or dies???
#clickbombed
  • Profile picture of the author Sleaklight
    I got clickbombed and banned on the third one. All 3 times I let them know and let them know who was doing it as I have server logs and provided them. I still got banned anyway. Unfortunately I was not able to block that IP address because several other legitimate members of my website had that same IP address (thank you AOL for that fail system of theirs). Just cross your fingers and appeal anything they do.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      Originally Posted by Sleaklight View Post

      I got clickbombed and banned on the third one. All 3 times I let them know and let them know who was doing it as I have server logs and provided them. I still got banned anyway. Unfortunately I was not able to block that IP address because several other legitimate members of my website had that same IP address (thank you AOL for that fail system of theirs). Just cross your fingers and appeal anything they do.
      I'm a bit confused. You got your account banned 3 times but restored twice and on the third time it was banned for good?

      Unfortunately I was only use Google Analytics and Statpress (wordpress plugin) until today. I have now installed Statcounter and track exit clicks and have seen several 4+ clicks in a span of seconds all from a confirmed proxy server.

      I sent the information to Google with the IP of the proxy server and also opened a thread at the adsense help forum where a top responder who has had his account closed twice and restored twice for invalid clicks gave me some advice.

      I'm really hoping the proactive steps I took to prevent damage to advertisers will help me out here.

      Otherwise I will be back at Day 1 almost a year ago when I started online.
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      • Profile picture of the author Sleaklight
        I never said I got banned 3 times. I said I got clickbombed 3 times and banned on the third one. I never said I restored my account.

        Originally Posted by Jacob Martus View Post

        I'm a bit confused. You got your account banned 3 times but restored twice and on the third time it was banned for good?
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      Originally Posted by Sleaklight View Post

      I got clickbombed and banned on the third one.
      Ok I got it. The way it was written was a little confusing.
      Originally Posted by Sleaklight View Post

      I never said I got banned 3 times. I said I got clickbombed 3 times and banned on the third one. I never said I restored my account.
      I mentioned the restored part because I was under the impression that you meant you got clickbombed 3 times and lost your account 3 times. (It wouldn't be the first time. Several publishers at their help forum have been banned multiple times and restored multiple times).

      Thanks for your input.

      Did you make use of the allowed sites function during the clickbombs? Or was it too late after you had noticed the bombing? How many clicks were there?

      The guy hitting me has been very clever and doing 3 or 4 clicks every couple of hours or so.

      The problem I'm having is that while my site isn't allowed I'm missing out on lots of legitimate clicks and earnings.

      I'm trying to figure out a work around to allow the site but block the illegitimate users. It's hard to do when he's using multiple proxies.

      I'm starting to think the only way I'm going to be able to allow the site is when/if he gives up on the attack.

      Jealous competitors man. I really wish there were more built in Adsense tools to protect publishers from this. But in the grand scheme of things I am one very very small fish in a huge ass ocean full of publishers...so I definitely see it from Google's point of view.
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      • Profile picture of the author miranon
        Is it possible to install some script on the server which can detect and block illegal clicks? For example, you can begin by blocking all public proxis etc and block more than 2 adsense clicks. I thougt such solutions were available, otherwise it's easy to clickbomb the competition.

        BTW, has anyone asked adsense support about measures to prevent clickbombing?
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        • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
          Originally Posted by miranon View Post

          Is it possible to install some script on the server which can detect and block illegal clicks? For example, you can begin by blocking all public proxis etc and block more than 2 adsense clicks. I thougt such solutions were available, otherwise it's easy to clickbomb the competition.

          BTW, has anyone asked adsense support about measures to prevent clickbombing?
          The only measures that have been mentioned to me on the Adsense help forum is to make use of the allowed sites function and remove the site being attacked from there.

          It works well because your ads stay live but clicks are not recorded and thus advertisers basically get free clicks. It saves advertisers from losing revenue to someone clickbombing, but it also makes me lose money in the process.

          I don't want to start banning all public proxies because there are legitimate users that use proxies. And once I start banning a proxy the attacker will just use another one until it's an endless battle of me banning a proxy, him finding a new one, me banning that one, etc.

          I don't know how they could do it, but I"m pretty sure adsense could come up with a way to prevent this for publishers. I mean after all they are the 'smartest' company in the world, you'd think they would have a way to protect legitimate publishers from jealous competitors or immature hackers with a grudge.

          What I have learned though is that it is my responsibility to protect my Adsense account...not Google's.

          Too many people taking getting banned by Adsense personal. It's not personal, it's business. If your site isn't safe for advertisers then Google really has no reason to keep you around. It's that simple.

          I just wish there was some Google Adsense tools besides the allowed sites function to help protect me from whomever is bombing me.
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          • Profile picture of the author miranon
            Originally Posted by Jacob Martus View Post

            The only measures that have been mentioned to me on the Adsense help forum is to make use of the allowed sites function and remove the site being attacked from there.
            The problem is, when you are away for 2-3 days on holidays without access to the internet, you will miss the clickbombing and it will be too late to use the allowed list in adsense.

            I think it's possible to write a script, linked to your adsense accounts allowed list and server stats, that monitors the clicks on your websites using a statistic for the last 2 months, so it could detect any unusual behavior. When it detects such behavior, it will automatically login to the allowed list in adsense and save the clickbombed url there. I think if you hire a freelance programmer, he could write such script for like 500-1000$.

            Originally Posted by Jacob Martus View Post

            I don't know how they could do it, but I"m pretty sure adsense could come up with a way to prevent this for publishers.
            As long as google has enough publishers, they will not worry. This is way it's very bad that there is no real competition on the search engine market today. Google will better ban you than come with a solution to prevent clickbombing, it's very sad.
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            • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
              Originally Posted by miranon View Post

              The problem is, when you are away for 2-3 days on holidays without access to the internet, you will miss the clickbombing and it will be too late to use the allowed list in adsense.

              I think it's possible to write a script, linked to your adsense accounts allowed list and server stats, that monitors the clicks on your websites using a statistic for the last 2 months, so it could detect any unusual behavior. When it detects such behavior, it will automatically login to the allowed list in adsense and save the clickbombed url there. I think if you hire a freelance programmer, he could write such script for like 500-1000$.



              As long as google has enough publishers, they will not worry. This is way it's very bad that there is no real competition on the search engine market today. Google will better ban you than come with a solution to prevent clickbombing, it's very sad.
              Yeah, I'd say that would be a great script but out of my skill set and price range at the moment.

              I don't really mind checking my Adsense account daily..hell even if I was on vacation, I'm sure I could find a few minutes to check my adsense account.

              Or by the time I'm on vacation, I should have enough money to pay an employee/friend/family member to monitor that kind of thing for me.
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              • Profile picture of the author yukon
                Banned
                [DELETED]
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                • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
                  Originally Posted by yukon View Post

                  I would never allow anyone to view my adsense account, that's a bad idea.

                  Some things are better not out sourced...

                  [edit]

                  Maybe you meant server logs?
                  Ok yeah you're right. Maybe not an employee but I could definitely trust one of my brothers or another family member.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Grant
    Weird.

    Things are off with one of my sites today. I'm monitoring it closely.

    Good luck mate.
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  • Profile picture of the author clickbumped
    If youre really worried take the ads down for 24 hours and monitor your stats to see where the traffic is coming from. Sorry to hear that man.
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    *I am not Scott Blanchard. I just thought this name was cool. =p

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    • Profile picture of the author inter123
      Handling such a program as Adsense, surely Google must have prevention measures for such things. Personally I would not bother to report such incidents, I would have just continued as if was another day.

      In addition, reporting such matters bring your sites to the attention of Google. They may carry out a visual inspection and a low level employee may decide within 30 seconds that the site does or does not meet the expectations of Adsense. It is always a worry for people with smaller sites that serve no real purpose other then earning an income through clicks.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
        Originally Posted by inter123 View Post

        Handling such a program as Adsense, surely Google must have prevention measures for such things. Personally I would not bother to report such incidents, I would have just continued as if was another day.

        In addition, reporting such matters bring your sites to the attention of Google. They may carry out a visual inspection and a low level employee may decide within 30 seconds that the site does or does not meet the expectations of Adsense. It is always a worry for people with smaller sites.
        They do have measures in place to prevent click fraud. But not from many different multiple proxies and there are countless examples of people losing their account because of fraudulent activity.

        The top contributer at their help forum has had his account banned twice and restored twice because of invalid activity. Not reporting it would be way worse than reporting it.

        I have nothing to hide with my sites and would be perfectly fine with a visual inspection. They fit all of the program policies and TOS and are decent size, good quality sites.

        I am not going to lose my account without at least putting up a fight. Not reporting the activity makes it look even more fraudulent.

        Hopefully the allowed sites feature works like its supposed to and they see that I made use of it when the clickbombing began. That is really the only counter-measure available.
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        • Profile picture of the author Dellco
          I really wish Google would implement a self correcting system so that if anyone clicks more than X number of times, the ads would simply stop registering those clicks.

          They have made progress though, but then you will get many people complaining why their clicks don't make money, and then blaming Google for stealing those clicks....

          Actually, the Approved Sites feature was implemented after someone actually got banned and launched a personal campaign, which was deemed a good suggestion by those running Adsense....

          Since then, others have been asking for the above feature, but it has never materialized. However, nowadays, you will find today, that Google does deduct clicks after the month is up, sometimes by a large margin, or that a lot of clicks will register zero earnings. And as usual, many people point fingers at Google for "stealing their money."


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          • Profile picture of the author miranon
            Is there a script available that prevents invalid clicks by blocking the ip addresses?
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            • Profile picture of the author dburk
              Originally Posted by miranon View Post

              Is there a script available that prevents invalid clicks by blocking the ip addresses?
              Yes there are multiple scripts that are available as Wordpress plugins. Just check out the numerous Ad Manager plugins, many have features that will turn off ad serving automatically for scenarios like this.
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              * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
              *               Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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  • Profile picture of the author J42
    Good luck!
    It's impossible to talk to Google, they just won't listen. They banned my Adwords account and my Adsense account at the same time even though I'd done nothing wrong.

    I've been trying for months to get the back but they won't help.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    Originally Posted by Jacob Martus View Post


    I have worked my ass off on this site over the last 4 months and I would hate to lose it all
    Do you see a problem here? Too many eggs in one basket?
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      Originally Posted by Marhelper View Post

      Do you see a problem here? Too many eggs in one basket?
      I definitely do but I only have time to pursue one business model at the moment and Adsense is unfortunately the route I took a year ago when I got into this business.

      I do plan on branching out in the future when I've got some money to invest in creating my own software/products.

      I've followed that piece of a advice that many people fail to follow: "Pick something and stick with it."

      It's been good to me, however this is the first time I've had to defend myself from an attack of this nature.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sleaklight
    I didn't use the sites allowed function because it was the only site I had that used adsense. The number of clicks ranged in the hundreds during the clickbombs within an hour time window. Since adsense is not real time, at least when I was part of it, I could not get in and disable adsense.

    The best course of action is to get rid of the adsense on that site for now. Get rid of it for a week and bring it back on later and see if the clicks have ended. If not, try longer periods of time. If this person is determined to get you banned, you should forget about adsense on that site as they'll keep on doing it until they succeed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bryan V
    Hey Jacob, I was wondering if you ever got this sorted? Did you end up using a plugin to block ips?

    I remember reading somewhere about it being against TOS to show adsense to some, while blocking others... I think people did it so they could buy traffic and still serve adsense to organic visitors or something along those lines...

    Hope your account is okay!
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    Perhaps an attic I shall seek.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by pack12 View Post

      Hey Jacob, I was wondering if you ever got this sorted? Did you end up using a plugin to block ips?

      I remember reading somewhere about it being against TOS to show adsense to some, while blocking others... I think people did it so they could buy traffic and still serve adsense to organic visitors or something along those lines...

      Hope your account is okay!
      Hi pack12,

      I have never heard of this before, could you please cite your source!

      This would be a very big change in the AdSense program effecting thousands of publishers. I seems to me that Google would have made an announcement ahead of time warning publishers of such a big change in policy. Why have I not heard of this before? Could you be mistaken?

      I have bought targeted traffic for websites with AdSense for years and never needed to block AdSense. That seems like another bit of misinformation that gets spread around here with no bases in fact.
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      * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
      *       Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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  • Profile picture of the author WebPen
    I dont use much Adsense, but aren't there alternatives to Adsense that probably aren't as strict?

    I can understand if you've only used Adsense you may be hesitant to make the switch, but I just wanted to throw out there that I think there are some good alternatives if worst came to worst.
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