Is it against Google's Adsense rules to put a different publisher number than your own in your ad code? And, if it's legal, could there be any side-effects (other than diversion of that income)? The reason I ask is that someone close to me, who has their own Adsense account, needs help and it would be easier for me to siphon off a bit of money to them this way.
There are a lot of 'Adsense revenue sharing' sites without any problems. But I guess there is the risk of loosing your account by association if the other person decides to go a route Google doesn't want. Also be aware that your site must be in the 'Allowed sites' list if this other person uses this feature. Otherwise the clicks will not pay to anyone.
Remember also that you are not allowed to have more than one pub-id on a single page. If you have more than one ad on a single page, all ads must have the same pub-id. If you do put a friend's pub-id on any of your pages, make sure all the ads on that page have his/her number.
its not a good way to pay someone by using their adsense ID in your own site. not a good idea either since you have to change the adsense pub id back and forth on the same site. if you want to help someone financially, then why not just pay them in cash directly rather than indirectly by using their publisher ID?