I pop over to a forum and offer a job to some guys to click things for me for 2 cents a click. OK 5 cents and stay on the page for 30 secs. I disguise my job offer so nobody who doesn’t do it has a clue what it is about
I then direct those I vet to click your WeOwnTheMoney.com ads so it costs you money and I do this everyday I pay out a pittance to have your links clicked.
I use guys in India first, I then move on to Pakistan. After this I use Canadians. I then use Brazilians. I find some guys in the US and the UK who are also willing to click for a few measly cents.
Now Google say “Don’t be Evil” but what is to stop anyone from doing this?
Have Google got an infallible little Dutch Boy to stick his finger in the hole to stop the tap dripping down the drain?
I know there are some things in place and their are the obvious monitoring and budget things to consider to but really if done right and cleverly enough is this not a great big gaping hole in the PPC model?
I might add I would never dream of doing such a thing as it is just out and out nasty but then I am nice like that - are your competitors?
That money that google takes out of your adsense every month after checking for fraudulence, or that money you get refunded every month for fraudulent adword clicks, that’s at least an indication that they very actively pursue practices as you lay them out.
It doesn’t apply to me I don’t get paid by adsense or use adwords I am just seeing what people think but interesting to know some of the measures thanks
However like most crime it’s had to become fairly sophisticated to really work. Sure there are those who scam a high priced keyword for a few bucks but doings things that makes notable amounts of money means regularity and regularity means something to spot, and stop. Like most ad networks, Google is heavy-handed… they have to be. If advertisers see conversions drop, we optimize, cut or even leave the program so when a site is getting X clicks from X traffic, or has significant overseas clicks from short duration visitors or repeated clicks from a region or one of a million factors, it may very well trigger a system.
They don’t catch it all and they likely catch a few who didn’t do anything wrong but that’s the nature of using a network.
ah I see sort of a version of the “Trigger Words” system that works with phones and trips folders then but by actions and not words.
hmm I wonder how well that actually works. I mean I can’t quite fathom how the phone one works
I have read how certain words and repetition of words or certain actions trigger er the opening of folders shall we say in the phone system but you only have to look at the frequency of words like terrorist, semtex, bomb etc to see that this system is really difficult to get your head round the intricacies of. Then we get the addition of people talking in slang like with Coke Cola Charlie or Henri RE drugs etc
What sort of crazy trigger system this would truly involve dealing with and monitoring. If you get my drift and comparison?