Google Scam - Adwords

[Paul_KY]

IMHO, Adword advertisers are being scammed by Webmasters who advertise, "Adsense" and by Google. Why Google? I see so much of the below on a daily basis, IMHO, they are turning their cheek.

I'm not going to complain to the FTC/Google/Whoever. I'm simply writing/calling every advertiser I see on the, "Adsense" ads, providing them with screen shots.

This WILL stop! And the ONLY way to stop it, well, follow the money chain. :up2:

Here's one of MANY examples:

"Each time you 'click' on the 'Google ads' (on the right side of this page and on most pages of this website) ---AND/OR ---you do a 'Google search' (which is right below those ads) from this website (instead of from google.com) ---you help keep all this help free and flowing out to all..please help.... please bookmark this website for your "Google searches"... thanking you in advance, Toby"

 

[Duke]

Where's the screenshots :?:

 

[temi]

Interesting Paul, like ken said a screenshot may be useful

 

[Paul_KY]

How do I add a screenshot to a msg board? :eyepop:

 

[temi]

phpBB is not good with attachments, you need to upload the image to a remote location and reference it. If its too much hassle for you send it to me or Ovi and we will attach it to your message for you.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

You should report this site to Google. It is expressly against the adsense t&C to encourage anyone to click on ads, or to make reference to them in any such way. reporting this site might well bring down hundreds of other sites with it that this webmaster runs ads on.

This type of behaviour is unprofessional, and is normally done by younger teens who make a few $$ out of it. Their visitors tend to be the same age group, and they see no problem with ad clicking to give the revenue to the webmaster. They do not see beyond, to the webmaster paying for that click, it is not considered.

You really should report any behaviour like this without fail, as we are all paying (although I dont advertise but my clients do) for these rogue sites.

 

[Paul_KY]

OWG,

I see this all the time.

I usually wouldn't post a URL like that, but this Webmaster is the worst of the worst, IMHO. I called. I e-mailed 3 times. Finally, I posted on his board, the TOS violation. He then deleted the post, stating, "I delete underage/teenager like posts". :roll:

I just can't believe this violation would be occurring on a site such as this.

BTW, while searching, you wouldn't BELIEVE they keyword this a-hole's site came up under... never mind :shock:

Again, I like contacting the advertisers, not Google. Google has never done a thing when I report it to them. And in contacting the Webmaster, I only asked that he/she stop doing this, and explained how it hurts the Advertiser’s ROI.

See for yourself…

gettingthemsober.com/cgi-shl/recwebbbs.pl?

:mad2:

 

[OldWelshGuy]

That stinks. Then again the guy is happy to steal money, or to obtain money by deception, so what can you do?

 

[Paul_KY]

OWG,

And you know this type of audience would be MORE than happy to click click click away even if he DIDN'T, "Beg" them to.

Anyway, I guess what comes around, goes around. And he'll have it, "Come Around" one day. If he practices what he preaches, perhaps he'll give back the advertising dollars to the advertisers he STOLE from.

Temi, check your e-mail. I sent you a couple of screen shots.

 

[Paul_KY]

This may make some of you sick uke:

Here is what she has posted on her board regarding my asking her to remove the material:

"Posted By: Toby Rice Drews
Date: Sunday, 5 December 2004, at 2:32 p.m.

Just received a phone call from a colleague who 'patrols' this bulletin board when I am not (of course) always available to do so.
(There are quite a few of us--------days, nights, weekends, and holidays...who watch out for the safety and appropriateness of postings here. And thank goodness I have a delete button!)
There was (another!) posting that I just deleted...from someone who claimed that he/she has tried to call and email me about the "Google" and "Google" search features here, and about my wording in the box above..... and that person claims that I never answered her/him.
First of all, those of you (and that is many of you!) who email and call me, know that I return all correspondence... so many of you say (for instance), when I contact you, "Oh, it's Thanksgiving! And you actually called me back!"
That was my first clue that the person whose posting I deleted, was not telling the truth.
What the person also said in that posting was that I had no right to use that wording in that box above, according to Google rules.
Now, one thing that people who know me, kid me about, is that I am extremely scrupulous about all legalities......I call our attorney about everything before I post a word!
And, Google "crawls" all websites that have their ads and Search feature, regularly. They actually read everything on each page, to make sure all is "ok".
(In fact, once, they erased the ads (electronically, from their site) on the "grief/loss" article-page on this website, and when I asked them why, they said the subject matter, they felt, was "depressing".
They of course, have the right to do so...so, I just said, "thank you for that explanation".
As you can see, I stay in close contact with Google about everything.
And in that vein, I am in contact with my Google-representative about that scam posting....Google likes to know what's what.......In fact, my very brilliant webhost is great at "looking behind the scenes" and finding out who is doing what...... love to all in recovery, Toby"

"Scam Posting" :blue:

 

[Paul_KY]

Wait till she hears from the advertisers, advertising via Google, whom have ads on that site. Wait till their attorneys contact her, "so called" attorney.

This isn't about just one person. This is about putting a STOP to CLICK FRAUD.

Is there anyone here that interprets Google's TOS any other way than I? What she is doing is CLEARLY against the TOS.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

paul IMO your spot on with your interpretation, it is against the TOS to encourage people to click on an advert. No room there for ambiguity.

 

[Paul_KY]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/02/technology/google_fraud/index.htm?cnn=yes

Google sees this activity as a threat. Well, so why is the site I referenced still able to, "Beg" for clicks?

 

[Paul_KY]

UPDATE!

This Webmaster has taken the TOS violaton down.

Google ads are still showing, so that's good. I wouldn't want someone to lose income, especially this time of year. At the same time, I'm not sure if some of that income was rightfully earned. Either way, I'm happy she choose to take the msg down. And I'm happy Google didn't cancel her account, as everyone needs second/third/etc. chances.

:thumbup:

 

[monkey]

im glad you resolved this, but i feel like playing devils advocate. isn't this type of thing what you would expect from a pay per click advertisement campaign. some people are gonna click just because it makes someone else a little money. should they really be penalized for actually sending a real person to your website? it is in fact real traffic, and google ads are supposed to be targeted so seems like that someone clicking might even fall into your target audience.

anyway let me take this a little more extreme. since the person clicking the link (ad) is soooo concerned about your loss of money on the advertisement shouldn't they simply copy the address for the ad and type it into the browser? after all that way the advertiser pays nothing for the visitor, and we do a nice job of cutting out both google and the publisher. seems fair? didn't think so.

so like i said when you enter into these types of ad campaigns you have to weigh all the benefits vs. all the negatives. if you are bidding 1 dollar or more a click you've got to ask yourself if the false clicks are worth it. if they aren't don't bid so much. if you can't afford it that is life.

i'm just playing devils advocate here and i don't think click scamming is cool at all, but i do think there is a fine line between people earning some return for placing an ad and full out scamming. i don't know what kind of damage he, but like i said there is a fine line between scamming and and supporting your site.

and don't think google has that in their TOS because they care soooo much about you and your ads either. they are in the business of making money, and if advertisers don't feel their money is safe with google or being effectively spent they will go elsewhere. end of story.