I got an email a few months back from AdSense saying they had detected invalid clicks. I know how they were generated, one of my friends was trying a little too hard to help out and clicked on about 30 of my ads across a few of my sites in a few hours. I've since told him how it can get me banned and he's stopped. I'm almost at the point of tipping over the $100 payout limit, and I was wondering if that means I'm in the clear? Will Google turn around once I've earned $100 and ban my account? Will they reduce my earnings? It's been 2 months since I got the email and nothing else has happened so I think maybe it's all good now?
so if its your first payouts they usually checks if it were generated from invalid clicks and they might ban you for this for it all depends on the mood of the reviewer from adsense if your site is good with contents and not made just for adsense you are thru' i got 2-3 such emails but i never got banned because mine site was good enough and not just made for adsense.. they are humans and they do understand if your site is good and you did a mistake for the first time.
If your clicks are clean now, you will be ok. But if Google finds out that your site is generating invalid clicks again, you will be in big trouble. Refrain from bougus click. Always think about how the advertisers who are advertsing in your site. They are really paying the money for valid clicks not bogus clicks.
Yeah the clicks have been clean since that happened... And hey I know as much as anyone you need to think about the advertisers, I'm also advertising on AdWords!
The thing that gets me is Google is warning about invalid clicks that arnt even the publishers fault - yet the publisher (innocent in all of this) could get banned! Its like a policemen knocking on your door telling you he is doing you for speeding - yet you havent driven your car all day!!! Crazy.
Just wait for things to come around and you will know. Guessing and speculating won't help. Most important is that the rest of the clicks after you got the email were legit, then there should not be anything to worry about.
when you reach the 100 dollar threashold there is good chance that you will be banned. I would make sure not to give google your private information, this way you can create another adsense account under your name in the future.
PerryS: If you haven't actually had your account disabled, you may be in the clear if there haven't been any invalid clicks since they sent the message. None of us can know for sure, though. In the future, you can make an Invalid Clicks Report to Google https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62472#q2 Well, like a policeman who can only tell that the car registered to your name was breaking the law, but not who was driving it, Google can only tell that there were invalid clicks on your site, not who made them. How do you propose that Google figure out whether the publisher asked for the clicks? The only way they can protect their customers (Adwords advertisers) is to disable accounts that steal money from them via invalid clicks. It's no different from a brick-and-mortar business having its business license revoked for criminal activity on the premises. It may not seem fair, but that's the way the world works.
I reckon if they do ban me after I get to $100 I'd have good grounds to sue them actually, so I doubt they'd do that. It would be a pretty sneaky and underhanded company if they banned people, then let those people continue earning money (for Google) until they reach the $100 threshold. That's basically $100 of theft from my website. Hell if it did happen I could sell my story to some current affairs TV show (they put stuff like that on all the time over here in Australia) and at least make my $100 back.
Yep Smells a ban comin your way mate. Be carefull or somone realy givin u hard time clikin out ur ads. take care of google...and it will yrs too.
Don't be so negative guys ... but be careful next time when you tell your friends to help, I don't think that's a good way to start.
Oh I know... I've actually stopped telling my friends about sites because of this! And as for suing, I really couldnt be bothered, but I don't think Google would routinely be engaging in behaviour which would open them up to claims of them being dishonest.