One thing I might try to do if I was in your place, I would just remove all the publisher ID from my Adsense ads for a few days, that way your lunatic user who's trying to sabotage you would just click on non functional ads, but he wouldn't know that, and he'll get tired after a few days. Once the storm has passed, put the publisher ID back. It would probably be easy to do even with a wide search and replace. So during the attack you wouldn't be in trouble with Google and it would only cost you a few days of revenues instead of anxiously waiting to be banned.
Not sure what happened because Google has ignored both of my emails. It appears they put some kind of a 24 hour freeze on my earnings where they left the ads running on my site but did not pay me for any clicks. Everytime I checked my account it would always end up back at 0.01 in earnings even after 100 clicks. Then at some point they released whatever block they put on my earnings and the clicks are generating earnings again. So instead of just removing the invalid clicks from the click bomber they took away all my earnings for the day and decided it was not worth responding to my emails. I guess I should be happy my account is still open but to tell you the truth I really don't care. Google customer service for AdSense publishers is now horrible. They have run out of any new good ideas, and I think the whole program is on the decline. Since I could end up with the "I'm sorry your banned email" right around check time this month I a pulling all my ads and just using affiliates now. I am not taking a chance on Google doing the right thing because they are completely unresponsive. I guess 4 1/2 years as a decent publisher doesn't mean much to them anymore.
That's why people are running away from them, only real small publishers and mfa's kids still hang out... They really need to improve publisher costumer service.
Hi Filipina, good to see it hasn't turned out as badly as you first thought. Some of the posts here have got me thinking about switching elsewhere.
lol that would imply they had customer service to begin with, not too sure a cage full of chimps qualify as a customer service department. Seriously though what you said is pretty true, people are getting smart and realizing there's far better ways to monetize their traffic and earn a lot more.
I also faced problem from by adsense-bot. This 2 months get lower and lower. What's wrong about adsense-bot ?
Agree. I personally know many folks that went bananas with the stress of getting click bombed and moved away from Adsense. Adsense team really need to offer some protection to publishers. It's damn easy! They think it's fraud? Don't pay the publisher! But keep him in the team! What a freakin' company...
I had Adsense shutdown on a site because "Adsense was displayed in a floating box". The site was a pretty stock vBulletin forum, Adsense was added to the site using the built-in vBulletin feature specifically for adding Adsense just like millions of other sites. I sent them my HTML saying "where is this floating box, if this code is invalid vBulletin needs to be notified ASAP because this is stock code" and didn't even get a reply. I was a publisher doing $1,200 a day at one stage, they don't give a toss.
I can say over the past 4 1/2 years AdSense customer service has gone from marginal to very poor. They use to respond to you with something, even if it was not a comprehensive answer. Now they just ignore you. I think a long time publisher that has decent earnings over the years should expect a little help and consideration when in the middle of being click bombed. "HI Joe. We understand there is a problem and we will be sure to credit the advertisers effected by the click bomb, and let you keep the legitimate clicks that had nothing to do with it. Since you have been a long time publisher and never had a problem before your account remains in good standing." Instead all you get is silence and a whole day of earning lost. Also, left wondering if the ban is coming when it is time to receive your check. Nice way to run a business. Of course if I am in my Adwords account (which I have now disabled) and have a question I can use the live chat and speak to the Google Gods.
Coming in late on this... Had the same thing happen to me. Backwoods Tennessee weirdo. If he's sitting click bombing, then Google filters that out and they will continue to filter. The only thing that I found 'strange' is that they allow clicks to show and then are constantly removing them... must be some sort of processing priority. Anyways, in my opinion, as long as you've reported the click bomb to G, they seem to be approachable and no penalties will apply. Well, at least they didn't in my case. Unless he's using some sort of automated bomber, he'll get tired of click-click-click and will go upstairs and get his mom to make him some supper. Along the way he'll realize that he needs his right hand for other 'important' things.
Cool, but Google should provide a simple tool (inside tool) for them to be able to get rid of click bombers and yet to keep publishers safe. Otherwise the % of publishers banned by competitors will always be very high!
I don't get it, you're afraid of being banned by Google, so you removed Adsense from your site, therefore doing the equivalent banning yourself? Seems to me the loss of a day or two of revenue is nothing compared to losing an account.. but hey, you're free to do as you please. The affiliate world isn't exactly squeaky clean either... a lot of merchant fraud.
I am removing it until after the next check is due, I guess. If they send me the money then I will assume I am not banned and put the code back. I will not feel so ripped off this way if I am banned. You are right, affiliates can be bad news too. It is hard to find one that is clean.
go to adsense setup tab, and click on the allowed sites, then check the option that says - "Only allow certain sites to show ads for my account" that's an easy way to remove ads without editing 5k pages
dont worry pal . google always hears to their customers.there is no doubt that they might take necessary action after seeing your mail .