I sent Adsense a notice that I suspected illegitimate clicks and yet they banned me the next day. I thought reporting suspicious of fraudulent clicks was suppose to save you. How do I go about getting my account back? By the way, I have no idea who did the illegitimate clicking.
You are pretty much screwed. A similar thing happened to me a few years ago. Some guy sabotaged me by racking up hundreds of adsense clicks each day. I told them what happened and how I didn't know who was doing it. They basically ignored my e-mail and I'm still banned to this day. A couple years after I even tried signing up for a new account in my girlfriend's name. Somehow they connected that account back to me (probably through the urls the ads ran on) and banned that account too. You'll be lucky to get any kind of reply from them. If they suspect you are involved in click fraud in any way, they don't take chances and ban you for life.
When Google bans you for invalid clicks you are banned for life. It has nothing to do with the URL you run your ads on. The only way to get around the ban is to sign up using a different tax ID number. The only way to do this legitimately is to form a company (like an LLC) and then use that company's tax ID number and bank account for AdSense. One other small thing... Google is not stupid. They use all kinds of tools like IP address, the Google toolbar, time on page, navigation depth into the site, etc... to detect fraudulent clicks. If you notice someone doing this to your ads, just block their IP from your server and get rid of them for good. Very easy to do in wordpress. I have the entire TOR list blocked on my sites.
I got an invalid clicks e-mail a long time back for one of my sites. I asked Google for help, telling them I didn't know where the invalid clicks were coming from. I received a reply back that they couldn't tell me where the invalid clicks were coming from. I replied back, how am I supposed to stop the invalid clicks you told me about if you won't tell me where they are coming from? I ended up removing my adsense ads from that site for awhile. I couldn't figure out what else to do and Google was no help at all.
Use a SiteMeter account, it provides to see which IP numbers have clicked the ads by listing the out-clicks (and of course which IP number went those out-clicks)
I had the same problem earlier. Tried to request for reactivation which never happened. I tried to create new account which never got approved. Tried to send as many requests as I can....but all in vein. All that I can say, find alternate options to Adsense. Prevention better than cure
I have the same problems as you. Tried contact Adsense but ended up with disappointment. They didn't reply my emails. So I'm banned forever.
Were any of you running Google Analytics? One of the reasons I like analytics is that Google can see who is clicking on my ads before I can. I am guessing that this is good insurance against invalid clicks. At least, I hope that is true. It's the "open-kimono" approach. I have nothing to hide from them. Hopefully, if I let them look DEEEEEP under my kimono, I will be a little better protected. They aren't going to tell anybody else what they see under there, so I don't get embarassed by showing my bare-ass. Ha-ha!
Google should provide the publishers with a New Option: Do you want to limit the number of clicks on ads per IP/User? Yes/No Limit the number of clicks: a) 1 b) 3 c) 5 d) 10 etc etc This way i should opt for a 1 click per day per IP/User (yeah i know im going to lose money - and so does google) but im on safe mode. But google will never provide this Option cause they will lose money. Lots of it.
Banning those who report click fraud is stupid if you ask me. Google should ask their staff, who would report click fraud if hes getting banned for it!!?
I've seen it reported adsense accounts are reinstated if you don't make a big deal about getting reinstated. Or maybe you could sign up as a family member.These guys want you making money for them.
Try appeal but the chance you get back your account is low. You might consider other PPC program if you fail to appeal
I was wondering if the duration for which you have been a publisher plays into this? Those of you who got banned were with Adsense for how long? I suspect they would be quick to ban new publishers as opposed to older ones with a clean record.
That was really a bad experience. My friend got banned too for being suspected for click frauds even he didn't do it.
I think that they were already investigating your account for invalid clicks and blocked it before reading your e-mail. If they have read your e-mail before investigating your account, then they should simply stop showing ads on that site or remove your earnings. They do not ban you if you inform them about invalid clicks.