Adsense a scam???

1. 0

   Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

   I recieved the following email this morning...
   
   While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSenseaccount has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Sincekeeping your account in our publisher network may financially damageour advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account. Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect theinterests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. Werealize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you inadvance for your understanding and cooperation. If you have any questions about your account or the actions we'vetaken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more informationby visitinghttps://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153&hl=en_US. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team-------------------------------------------------------------------------------This message was sent from a notification-only email address that doesnot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
   
   
   What have I done wrong? I have good content, haven't cheated. It sounds like they are dropping me cause I've earnt on clicks. What the??? What point will there be in staying a hubpages member? All my hard work to try and earn a little for nothing

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2. 0

   Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

   Anyone???
   
   I just read on another forum that many people are dropped when there account gets near the payout threshold. Mine was only at $16 but they seem to be saying they see it being a problem in the future.

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   1. STAFF

      pauldeedsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I definitely would not call AdSense a scam.
      
      Are you using adsense anywhere besides HubPages?  If not, earning $16 with the number of hub views you have puts you quite a ways above the norm.  Are you sure that someone you know wasn't clicking on your ads "for you"?
      
      I've certainly heard third hand stories of people that claim to be completely innocent having their accounts shut down.  But of people that I know personally that use AdSense (around 40 or so), the only account that was shutdown was someone that attempted a very naive click fraud scheme.  Obviously my sample size is fairly small.  But we've heard very little of this on HubPages where thousands of users are making money (and receiving checks) from AdSense.
      
      There isn't much that we can do to help you.  I'd suggest that you follow up with google.  They provide instructions on filing an appeal here.  I have heard of a few cases where people were able to get their AdSense access restored, but it is fairly rare from what I understand.
      
      Good luck.

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         terrygposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I agree with that. Its not a scam and its not a joke and people have to take it seriously. They need to purchase logging software and protect their accounts at all costs. Adsense team are approachable and if you have the data then the problem is soon resolved.
         
         Its because of fraudulent clicks we get 0.03 to 0.05 cpc instead of more.

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3. 91

   Squimpletonposted 14 years ago

   You know, if you think about it sites that do pay most of its users can actually scam more than true scam sites. After all in a true scam site, where no one gets paid, people can quickly find out which stops the spread of new users. However for something like Adsense, where most of its users do get paid, they actually can scam more - because for every user they unfairly go against, there are hundreds who can say "I was paid, maybe those people deserved it". So many adsense does scam a small percentage of its users.

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4. 78

   Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

   That looks like a phishing email...it may not have come from AdSense. Have you tried logging into your account...but not from the link in the email?

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   Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

   It most certainly did come from adsense when I tried to log into my account I got the message that it had been disabled.

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   Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

   and yes I logged in from hubpages not any link from the email.

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      Mark Knowlesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      How do you log in from hubpages?

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   Squimpletonposted 14 years ago

   well a phishing email who use a lookalike domain (like goog1e.com), not the real thing.

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8. 0

   Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

   Hubpages says to take it up with google and google says theres no recourse and they can drop you for any reason. I'm really upset

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9. 0

   Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

   I clicked on the check adsense earnings link in my hubpages account under affiliate settings.

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10. 57

    Mark Knowlesposted 14 years ago

    In that case, perhaps some one has complained that you took their content:
    
    http://hubpages.com/hub/2008-Prom-hairstyles
    
    http://www.helium.com/items/1042211-bes … r-the-prom
    
    That is now what I do when some one takes my writing, publishes it and adds adsense ads. I have given up trying to stop it so I just complain to google.
    
    

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11. 0

    Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

    Mark-that is me! That's my content and I'm free to use it. Other members like I believe Eileen Hughes do so too.

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       Eileen Hughesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Voice of style,   Sorry but I am not sure what you mean.  What do I do too?
       
       Maybe I missed something.  Sorry if I have.   I do know of someone who has been banned if that is what you meant.   He was not given any reason,  And the only thing he could think of was that someone else was clicking on his work.    Is this what you were referring too.

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12. 61

    Chris Collingsposted 14 years ago

    I just noticed that a couple of articles appear on Helium too. Maybe that is the reason. I searched Unforgettable R&B break up songs and your Helium article came up. Adsense loves original content, so could penelise you for having the article elsewhere.
    
    Chris

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13. 57

    Mark Knowlesposted 14 years ago

    Sorry - I was just throwing an idea out there.

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14. 0

    Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

    Paul I don't have access to the internet anywhere else. From what I've read people are earning their check within 3-9 months so I didn't think $16 for over 2 months was that high.
    
    Plus they aren't saying I've violated that policy they are just saying I could become a problem???

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    Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

    I've read the terms and conditions and if I own the work I'm allowed to use it and again others are doing so and not penalised.

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16. 61

    Chris Collingsposted 14 years ago

    I have been to the Google help page that was recommended in your email. It seems to deal with invalid click activity. Is there any chance that someone has used your PC to view one of your articles and inadvertantly clicked an Adsense link?
    
    Chris

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    Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

    Chris
    
    That's why I'm throughly confused. The email doesn't mention anything about invalid clicks and then the link doesn't give any reason other then invalid clicks.
    
    I only live with my husband no other housemates so no I can't see it having happened accidently. Surely clicks from the same isp wouldn't even register for payment anyway would they?

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       daflaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I knew someone who got her account cancelled and it was because someone clicked on her ads like 400 times in one day.  She said that Google said it was me that did it, but everyone who's ever gone through it says that they don't tell you anything.  She just thought it was me because I had a competing site.  She knew who it was, because the person was on the forum talking about clicking ads, and encouraging us to click ads. 
       
       They know what IP the clicks come from, and if they all come from one IP, it's probably invalid clicks.  I had a day that I got 20 clicks, and didn't get any money, because they said they were all invalid.  Never told me why, though. 
       
       I just make sure I tell people that invalid clicks will get me kicked out, so they don't do it.
       
       Seems a lot of people have been getting kicked off of Adsense lately.  I read at least three or four stories a day on different sites.

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    Chris Collingsposted 14 years ago

    As far as I am aware all Adsense clicks would register for payment. If, however, your IP address came up on one of the clicks - your account could be suspended. They have to suspend straight away because it only takes a couple of hours to create a huge amount of clicks for commission.
    You are allowed one appeal - so hopefully it will be a mistake on Googles part.
    
    Chris

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19. 0

    Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

    I'm filling in the appeal form now. I recieved no suspension or warnings just the cancellation with no specific reason given. Hopefully the appeal will get it fixed.

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       Ronald Daniarposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Good luck, there was a blogger whom I know earns thousands dollars monthly from Google and then got banned. He had to wait until Google restore his account. Finally Google restored his account back.

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    Chris Collingsposted 14 years ago

    Good Luck with the appeal. I hope it works out OK for you. I have been searching for a solution online, but the appeal process seems to be the only way. It's amazing how many people have had the same problem as yourself. Look at this article from the Times:
    
    
    http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b … 703023.ece
    
    Chris

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    Voice of styleposted 14 years ago

    Thanks Paul-very interesting.
    
    I'll just have to cross my fingers at this point. They seem to have all the power. At least articles like this are exposing potential issues.
    
    At the moment they haven't removed their ads from my material. If I'm banned why do they still show ads on my material? They are fine to still use links on my work, but not to pay me it appears. I don't want to disable it all from my end at this point in case the appeal works, but in the meantime they get free advertising!

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       relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       You won't see AdSense ad disappear from your Hubs.  They run independent of the authors as HubPages runs them across the entire site.  If you had never signed up for AdSense on this site, you'd have still seen Google ads on your pages, with all earnings going to HubPages.
       
       That's what's happening now.  Your AdSense account has been disabled, but not the one connected to HubPages.

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    broalexdotinfoposted 14 years ago

    Is Hubpages the only place you are using your adsense ID ? Come on guys I`ve heard hundreds of stories on how Google actually bans accounts. There is no reason Google would ban good accounts, valuable for them and their advertisers. They don`t even do it manually in most of the cases, the e-mail they send out to publishers when they close accounts is pretty much the same every time. There is something in the algorithm that actually tells them the CTR is going crazy and some kind of fraudulent clicks are going on. You might have done nothing wrong, and I am sure about that, but Google just doesn`t need unhappy customers. Hopefully mine won`t get banned, and I actually receive some couple of checks already.
    
    Cheers

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23. 55

    broalexdotinfoposted 14 years ago

    Remove the adsense code.

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24. 88

    Marisa Wrightposted 14 years ago

    It's frustrating that you can't even look at your Adsense account to see where the problem might be.  Click fraud - or rather the appearance of it - seems the most likely option. 
    
    $16 in two months does seem rather a lot.  Yes, people do earn their cheque in 3-9 months - I earned my first cheque at the end of May - but my earnings for the first couple of months were almost zilch, then they built rapidly from there, and that seems to be a fairly common experience. 
    
    I can't see what your page views are, but if Paul (who can see them) says your earnings are way out of proportion to your page views, he knows what he's talking about.  Are you sure someone hasn't been clicking on your ads?
    
    When I set up my website, I sent the link to a friend for his opinion.  That evening, I asked him what he thought. He said he liked it, and then he said, "I went through and clicked on all your ads, I thought it would give your earnings a boost."    Aaaaaargh!   Luckily I didn't get hit with any penalties but it just shows you what can happen.

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25. 86

    Whitney05posted 14 years ago

    Voice of style, I agree with Paul and Marisa $16 for just 2 months and 30 something hubs is rather high unless you are getting crazy large traffic. It is true that people get their first check within a few months, but if your traffic isn't proportionate then I'd say something's going on. If Paul says something's off with the $16 and your traffic, then I'd agree with him since he can see that info...

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26. 0

    Popular Wealthposted 14 years ago

    Do you have a site outside of hubpages? Provide a link and I can likely sniff out a possible problem in short order.

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       terrygposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       How? and is your Avatar Gene Simmons sister?

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27. 59

    spudsposted 14 years ago

    Oh dear, That is bad. I feel for you. I have heard of Google doing this sort of thing. Just open another account.

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    krityposted 14 years ago

    hello to all lovely people over there.i am new in this field will you all like to help me out. in the sence ,how can i promote my site so i that i can get high pr.
    
    
    
    waiting for your answer

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29. 61

    Chris Collingsposted 14 years ago

    Hi Eileen,
    
    Two of us mentioned that voice of style's content was the same as her articles on Helium. She just mentioned that she thought you had similar content on both sites too, but she didn't say that you definately did.
    
    Chris

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       Eileen Hughesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for letting me know.   Yes I write on Helium occasionally.  and when I started here I did use the same ones not knowing that is wasnt the best thing to do. 
       Occasionally I do write an article on similar topics  but change the name and rearange content adding things and deleting things.
       
       Are we allowed to do that or not.  As long as it is not word for word and altered especially the title is that ok or not can someone let me know.

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          Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Yes, it's perfectly OK to post the same article on several sites but as you discovered, it's not the most effective way to do things - original content is always best.  Which can be as simple as revising the article thoroughly.

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    aidenofthetowerposted 14 years ago

    I would say that accusing Google of fraud is a bit much considering there size. However, with their size comes great power and they have the power to do whatever they see fit for their programs. On one hand, your e-mail looks very generic (I know someone said it before me). On the other hand, I have to agree that $16 is a lot of money for the number of hubs you have and two months. If you had more hubs, maybe. If you have published elsewhere then it would be possible, but it doesn't sound like you have. This means you were probably flagged for click fraud. That can happen without it coming from your computer. If someone else has been trying to help you out by clicking your links, that can do it as well. I would say that it isn't likely that you will get your account back...maybe...but don't count on it. You can get to work on sites that pay you instead of share Google Adsense impressions.

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       daflaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I don't know that $16 in two months is so much.  I've seen people with certain hot topics make a lot more in a month than $16.

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    jyuvaposted 14 years ago

    This is what promoting

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32. 61

    Chris Collingsposted 14 years ago

    Hi Eileen,
    
    As far as I know that is allowed, I just made a point that Google doesn't particularly like placing ads on duplicate content. I was just searching for ideas on why voice of style's account had been closed.
    At the end of the day it's your original content so you shouldn't have any problems, and as you say you don't post the same content on both sites, so there isn't a problem with that.
    
    Chris

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33. 59

    Don Simkovichposted 14 years ago

    Hi Voice of Style,
    
    Try going to the Google AdSense Forum that Google hosts. I can try finding the url. It may likely be that one person clicked through on one of the ads.
    
    I have about $ 60 + in earnings from AdSense after several months. I know it's not 100% secure.
    
    However, perhaps someone in one of the forums can help.
    
    Try to diversify your earnings on Hubpages as well through the other affiliates.
    
    It is frustrating and it points out a weakness in Google -- they can't respond personally because they're so big.

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34. 44

    boycottchapter27posted 14 years ago

    I had the same issue. They never give you a reason, claiming it's
    proprietary technology.
    Problem is someone who feels you are "competing" with them, on hubpages for example, could click your ads continuously and cause a flag to go up.
    
    You have no recourse..... it just plain SUCKS!!!

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       Lissieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       
       YOu do its: called monitoring your earnings on a daily basis: if the click thru rate goes way high- report it immediately to google- be proactive -that has got to help!

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          BaliMermaidposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          What would be the link to report to use to report to google. I would like to ask them if a seperate adsense code is needed for revenue from writings or bm on a separate site? so that you can keep track of each seperately - then again I guess you can use adsense channels for that-
          so complicated actually

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             gogetterposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             Surely Google is smarter than this?

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                Lissieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                
                How can google know whether or not it was you doing the click - or your mate? Or just someone being helpful or malicious- the onus of proof is with the publisher not with google- you need google a lot more than google needs you!

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35. 57

    BaliMermaidposted 14 years ago

    I have heard of other content producers having trouble by using "their" content in more than one place.  One of my friends was told by Google that the only way to use content in more than one place yourself, is if that non-original use is notated as a BM ( bookmark). In other words if you have an account at a site like the new infopirate.org and bookmark some of your own content there you still get paid adsense for that because it shows up on google as a bookmarked entry. According to Google they like that type of multiple use because it shows real interest in content from more than one location, making it easier for them to determine if some one is doing something incorrect.
    
    Lets' face it - those boys at google did not get those phd in mathematics and computer science by being dumb.  They are however human and so I hope you are incorrect and they have just made a mistake. good luck - please let us know what happens as this type of occurance is disturbing to anyone really trying to do things properly.

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    Juliet Christieposted 14 years ago

    I am so sorry for what has happened. You could trying opening another account with another email and address that is the only way to get it back and if they can identify you as the same individal they will decline, When they close your account they really close it. The major reason is for invalid clicks or if you joint any programmes that  generates too much traffic and encourages too many people to click on the ads. hello I am new here, i have had an adsense experience too.

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    gogetterposted 14 years ago

    I guess what I'm questioning that you can go to any site go click crazy and google cancels that person's adsense account - destroying their income.  Just seems too easy.  Hubpages' adsense account is also linked so why would their account not also be canned?

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       aidenofthetowerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       It's actually a lot more complicated then that since it is all done with computer generated algorithms. But the computer will look into abnormal amounts of clicks generated from the same URL and Google has weeks (I think it is 30+days) to decide if your clicks are indeed genuine. If your account appears to be having an abnormal amount of clicks on more then one occasion you are likely to get canceled. There are lots of stories of it happening to innocent people...
       
       However, someone else said that you need Google more then they need you and with as many people with Google Adsense accounts and hoping to make money off of their web content all over the net, this is very true!

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    patnamohanposted 14 years ago

    Good discussion!!

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    Constant Walkerposted 14 years ago

    Voice of style, I've never liked Google AdSense, from the first day I tried to sign-up, and I wish to God I could take their cheesy ads off of my hubs. 
       My status with AdSense still says, "Pending email response,"  even though I responded to that email numerous times, contacted Support at the AdSense site, tried canceling then  re-upping,and have asked various people on HubPages for advice.  It just remains the same:  They put tacky, inappropriate ads on my hubs and I get nothing for it.
    
    Good luck with them.

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    Shawnkaizenposted 14 years ago

    There is no reason Google would ban good accounts, valuable for them and their advertisers. They don`t even do it manually in most of the cases, the e-mail they send out to publishers when they close accounts is pretty much the same every time.
    
    <no signatures please>

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