On February 24, a few hours after I posted Google Search's Blocked Sites, I noticed ads clicks increased in abnormal rate.
Needless to say, this might do some damage if I didn't report and I was really scared because I had never thought someone would target at my blog and AdSense has no real way to tell if that's made by account holder or not.
I believe these clicks were done with malicious intention. I have few possible theories about why the person did this:
When I was filling out that report form and prompted for any information about the clicker is helpful, such as date/time, location or IP.
I have Google Analytics and AdSense account linked, so I can read the revenue in Google Analytics reports. From there, I know the exact amount ad clicks on that blog post and the city of the clicker from, which was Horsham, Pennsylvania. I also checked all visit from that city. There was only three in January and the rest were those invalid clicks. So I was 100% sure, the clicker's location was in Horsham.
Unfortunately, I didn't have IP address since Google Analytics does not provide such information. This is a Blogger blog, I have no webserver access log. Later, I knew I could get IP from Google App Engine access log, becaues the JavaScript, stylesheet, and webfonts are hosted on App Engine.
I wrote a simple code to find out the locations from IPs on GAE, but none of them was from Horsham. Which only makes me believe more that someone was using not only the ads on my blog but also computer program to emulate clicks, because:
So, what have AdSense team responded with? That's one I am not going to tell, but remember there is a note on that form: AdSense team may not respond. I am not confirming nor denying anything here.
Beside the fear of being terminated, I wanted AdSense to remove those revenue from my account since it's not the money I earned. No contest from me, I would like some pocket money, but not this money.
This post is written for people who might encounter the same situation, I hope this will help people to find out clicker's information and to know where to report the invalid clicks in order to protect yourself.
- 2012-02-25T01:10:00Z - 0 clicks - Blog post posted.
- 2012-02-25T07:06:07Z - 25 clicks - The first time I noticed the situation.
- 2012-02-25T08:28:11Z - 31 clicks
- 2012-02-25T08:44:19Z - 34 clicks
- 2012-02-25T08:59:54Z - 35 clicks
- 2012-02-25T09:14:10Z - 39 clicks
- 2012-02-25T20:47:37Z - 62 clicks
Needless to say, this might do some damage if I didn't report and I was really scared because I had never thought someone would target at my blog and AdSense has no real way to tell if that's made by account holder or not.
I believe these clicks were done with malicious intention. I have few possible theories about why the person did this:
- Someone wants to get my AdSense account terminated.
- Someone thinks this can make money for me because he or she extremely appreciates my works. (I extremely doubt this)
- Someone wants to poke for AdSense's response by clicking on other's AdSense ads. Read and Check the other's website, if the site posts any updates.
- Someone is competitor to this blog. (My blog isn't popular at all)
- Someone hates me. (I am sure I didn't piss off someone recently)
- Someone is sociopath, he or she just want to make people some troubles.
When I was filling out that report form and prompted for any information about the clicker is helpful, such as date/time, location or IP.
I have Google Analytics and AdSense account linked, so I can read the revenue in Google Analytics reports. From there, I know the exact amount ad clicks on that blog post and the city of the clicker from, which was Horsham, Pennsylvania. I also checked all visit from that city. There was only three in January and the rest were those invalid clicks. So I was 100% sure, the clicker's location was in Horsham.
Unfortunately, I didn't have IP address since Google Analytics does not provide such information. This is a Blogger blog, I have no webserver access log. Later, I knew I could get IP from Google App Engine access log, becaues the JavaScript, stylesheet, and webfonts are hosted on App Engine.
I wrote a simple code to find out the locations from IPs on GAE, but none of them was from Horsham. Which only makes me believe more that someone was using not only the ads on my blog but also computer program to emulate clicks, because:
- There didn't seem to have requests on other resources (JavaScript, CSS, etc).
- It seemed to be two ads clicks per pageview. In that blog post, there is two ad units.
- The clicking rate is not so irregular to me, it doesn't seem to be possible to have a human sit in front of computer, hit refresh, then click on ads.
So, what have AdSense team responded with? That's one I am not going to tell, but remember there is a note on that form: AdSense team may not respond. I am not confirming nor denying anything here.
Beside the fear of being terminated, I wanted AdSense to remove those revenue from my account since it's not the money I earned. No contest from me, I would like some pocket money, but not this money.
This post is written for people who might encounter the same situation, I hope this will help people to find out clicker's information and to know where to report the invalid clicks in order to protect yourself.
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