Fradulent Clicks

[Help Desk]

How does Google detect a fradulent click?

[mxlabs]

why would you want to know unless you plan to break their protection?

google definately has the software to detect fraudsters. after all, it aint that hard to remove cheats. IP, country, browser, browser language, cookie, proxy and port detection ; server timestamps... you name it, they could do it.
click fraud control is really easy these days if you know who you are up against and what to look for.

[Help Desk]

why would you want to know unless you plan to break their protection?...

One reason to want to know is because of repeat clickers. What if one visitor likes the ads and keeps clicking on ads over a couple of days?

There are numerous reasons to want to know the specifics, all of which are upstanding.

[mxlabs]

I didn't imply that you are trying to cheat them, just asking. also, I just named the data they COULD check to prevent fraud, not what they actually do to counter cheating.

why would a single visitor click on the same ad box over and over again? sounds like a very unrealistic scenario to me... unless it is a bot.

[Bernard]

I just posted this in another thread, but I believe that if your frequent visitors are not converting to sales for the ads, your payouts will drop under Smart Pricing so the issue may become moot. See this discussion:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=885

[Help Desk]

...why would a single visitor click on the same ad box over and over again? sounds like a very unrealistic scenario to me... unless it is a bot.

The ads can change on the same page and on sub-pages.

[mxlabs]

I didn't mean the individual ad but the "ad box", literally the box which contains the text links.

[Help Desk]

I just posted this in another thread, but I believe that if your frequent visitors are not converting to sales for the ads, your payouts will drop under Smart Pricing so the issue may become moot. See this discussion:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=885

Regardless, the question still stands, how exactly does Google track fradulent clicks?

It would seem IP address is not the best as it could be coming from a firewall with several thousand possible users on the other side.

If there is a way to prevent clicks from accidentally being interpretted as fradulent, everybody can benefit from knowing about it.

[schlottke]

Nobody knows exactly except Google.. I've seen clicks not count in my account when I myself didn't make the click (knowing then that it had to be someone actually interested in the ad.)

[digitalpoint]

Google is not going to disclose how they detect them exactly, just like it won't disclose the exact algorithms for ranking. Otherwise they become open to manipulation.

[disgust]

does anyone know if more than one click from a single ip counts?

I'd certainly rather have it not count than risk that a single person could kill my adsense account.

[Help Desk]

I think this is where smart pricing kicks in....

https://adwords.google.com/select/news/sa_mar04.html

[uprisen]

How does Google detect a fradulent click?

I've answered this question several times.. They are NOT stupid - They dont only log the click but the log the person IP address... they log their screen resolution and Geographic AREA.. Just DONT do fraudulent clicks and theres NO way around it. :D

[dshah]

true, they must have spent most of their time defending their software/system. Thats the point which gives advertisers comfort that they are not being looted

[programmer]

lolz.... once i email adsense support team and ask them how they track farud clicks. Do u know what they said ! hum they said we have a very advance system to detect it and due to our policy we can't tell you but relax our system will never do wrong detection!

[exaro]

If they see high CTR and clicks coming from the same IP then they start to check you out.

If you notice a sudden jump of high CTR above 60-70% with lots of clicks contact google.

[Angelika]

Hi,

Yesterday one of my channel shows 2 page impressions 11 clicks and only 3 cents. Seems like the system has registered invalid clicks. Should I contact Google support about it? I have been running AdSense on my site for about 5 months (in september I expect to receive my first check :) ) but I've never seen something like this in my statistic so far.

[PinoyIto]

Hi,

Yesterday one of my channel shows 2 page impressions 11 clicks and only 3 cents. Seems like the system has registered invalid clicks. Should I contact Google support about it? I have been running AdSense on my site for about 5 months (in september I expect to receive my first check :) ) but I've never seen something like this in my statistic so far.

Yes... if I were you I will contact google immediately....

[programmer]

If they see high CTR and clicks coming from the same IP then they start to check you out.

If you notice a sudden jump of high CTR above 60-70% with lots of clicks contact google.

you are right dude:p

[PinoyIto]

you are right dude:p

But why when you request google to ban a certain IP to avoid fruad clicks, they answer they can't do that.

[sachin410]

But why when you request google to ban a certain IP to avoid fruad clicks, they answer they can't do that.

Why not ban the IP from your site ?

[Angelika]

Yes... if I were you I will contact google immediately....

Thank you for your answer...

I looked into the log files and found that yesterday 1 visitor from UK (not my country) and... Yandex search engine have visited that page.

So, I was wondering if it is possible all invalid clicks to come from a bot?

[Angelika]

Why not ban the IP from your site ?

Would you explain how to do this or give me any URL where I can read about it?

Thanks.

[blinxdk]

Would you explain how to do this or give me any URL where I can read about it?

Thanks.


How you do something like that will totally depend on your server setup.
Off my head I can think of:

In your firewall drop/reject connections from that IP.
In your code, check for REMOTE_ADDR or similar, then show a banned page. If you're using a CMS type system it may already have a feature such as that.
In your OS, route the offending IP to somewhere else.

Your hosting provider can proberly provide more help.

[sachin410]

Would you explain how to do this or give me any URL where I can read about it?

Thanks.

Sorry I cant help you much regarding this matter. This isnt my field. (I dont even know traffic details of my site. I just get happy seeing my adsense account.:) )

But I know it is possible to block an IP address from accessing a site. My friend runs a forum and he had trouble with people advertising on it - he banned a few addresses.

Fortunately, DP has many experts. Start a new thread if you need more detailed opinions.

[Bernard]

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=401736

[uprisen]

why would you want to know unless you plan to break their protection?

google definately has the software to detect fraudsters. after all, it aint that hard to remove cheats. IP, country, browser, browser language, cookie, proxy and port detection ; server timestamps... you name it, they could do it.
click fraud control is really easy these days if you know who you are up against and what to look for.

I agree, wow, that's all there ever is no this forum, they try to discreetly mention it hoping they'll get some ideas on how to cheat the system.

[Help Desk]

I've answered this question several times.. They are NOT stupid - They dont only log the click but the log the person IP address... they log their screen resolution and Geographic AREA.. Just DONT do fraudulent clicks and theres NO way around it. :D
This was originally posted well over a year before you even joined. The original post wasn't "How do I Earn Money from Fraudlent Clicks". It was asking about the internals of the mechanism.

I'm not going to go out and change the brakes on my car, but I would sure like to know how they work.