Copy of e-mail sent today.... Dear Google, Please help me out here. I'm a BIG Google supporter. It's my default search, I'm a Adwords customer, an Adsense publisher (sort of), a Froogle applicant and I offer Google search in many of my sites. A few months ago I was booted out of Adsense. The reason given was "spurious clicks". I don't get it. I didn't publish adsense on my sites for the money, I published Adsense to provide depth of content to my visitors. I was owed $80 at the time which had taken quite a long time to build up, I lost that but that doesn't matter. The point is I was hardly screwing the system with a balance of $80 and yet I'm told "It's all over pal, you have been trying to rip off our advertisers, and you lost your 80 bucks too". I may have clicked on the odd published ad in my sites out of genuine interest but It has never crossed my mind to sit at the computer clicking away to make a few cents, I haven't got the time (and I always assumed you'd have systems in place to track such behaviour anyway). Clearly I was right BUT I have been wrongly accused. Now I don't know how all of your products link up but I must make an interesting observation. You are perfectly happy for me to spend money with you via my Adwords account and I continue to publish your search box on some of my sites thereby displaying my support and preference for Google. It seems however to have become a one way street. I'm not allowed to publish Adsense and I can't seem to get my products from ampalian.com listed on Froogle, I just get ignored. Please help me out here, I don't understand what I'm supposed to have done and I LOVE GOOGLE ! Please review my Adsense status and please allow me some response from repeated Froogle support requests. I look forward to your reply. Kind regards Malcolm (URL links supplied here)
The interseting post would be if you got a specific answer from a real person outlining every point you raised. Then you should post it (I won't be holding my breathe)
Yes, hands up, I'm guilty. I didn't realise I was in breach of T&C by clicking the odd ad myself. It no defense but a) I don't read every single T&C word for word (do you?) and b) I assumed (wrongly) that Google would have technology in place that wouldn't credit clicks from a publisher, I'm surprised they haven't. The Froogle issue may well be unrelated to my status as lots of people seem to be having the same problem. I was wrong, I admit it, but I certainly wasn't attempting fraud. At least this thread will be a heads up to other Adsense publishers.
99% of Adsense users know not to click on their own ads. Im not sure it warrants a "warning". You say you weren't "trying to attempt fraud". That is correct, you didn't attempt you did ($80 worth). As an Adwords customer as well, I have no sympathy for you. Hopefully all those sites get a refund for your clicks
My first thought is that it is very sarcastic and if you catch the wrong G employee on the wrong day, your email is not going to go very far. Yes, most of us have read those TOS a few times completely. As for fraud, whether you meant to or not, you did commit fraud. Ignorance is not a defense. Most people have clicked their own ads and unfortunately you are one of the ones who got caught and made an example of. Had you read the TOS you would have known that was wrong. Also, to click it out of curiousity, could have been avoided by hovering your mouse over the ad and then typing the domain into the address bar. I don't want to be a dick about it, but it is what it is. If I were you I would revise that letter and be a lot more personable. Customer Service employees take a beating day in and day out and I am sure they would appreciate a kind letter....
Hehe I don't think stating your undying love for the company will help you on this one mate You clicked the ads, they caught you - end of...
Great defense. I didn't read the TOS and I assumed clicking wasn't bad. So that's how you eneter a business agreement with a professional company like Google.
No I didn't click $80 worth. Probably $79 was other "real" clicks. I may have clicked 2 or 3 ads in ignorance that's all. My e-mail to them was genuine, no sarcasm. I feel like I'm in a pretty cynical forum here.
We are being real...The TOS is there for a reason. Would you enter into a million dollar contract but never read it? I read every TOS when money is involved. It is there for a reason and as said earlier, ignorance is not an excuse. If you truly only clicked on them a few times, multiply it by the number of Adsense publishers. Who should pay that bill? Unfortunately I am right now. How is that fair and why shouldn't that constitute a dismissal on your part? Its not cynicism, its business for most on this board.
Most of these guys are afraid to click on an ad at Digital Point because their Pub # may come up. So clicking on your own sites from the same IP day after day is what the problem is here. Google has a cookie in your computer that can identify and cross reference your Adsense account and your clicks on your own ads and other ID software tools. It would be real hard to fool them unless you know a hell of a lot about removing the cookie and you also do not know what other information resources they use to identify your computer and your IP's.
Its not hard to remove or block a cookie. Computer's IP and browsing profiling would be ideal to identify users.