Anatomy of an Adsense Scam

Google’s adsense program is well established, highly developed and, no doubt, employs highly motivated programmers whose primary goal is to ensure that Adsense is successful. That’s my view.

I’m not entirely sure how other people see them – there seems to be a belief that it’s easy money for publishers and that they’re easily fooled. Companies like Hewlett Packard (HP) didn’t take me seriously when I tried to tell them about a scam being run from their call centres.

The latest clown to catch my attention was over at the digitalpoint forums and here’s some of his posting history (from his profile he appears to be male).

17 Sep ’14 Hello Guys, Today I saw My CPC raised Up to $30, yesterday Cpc is $3.so, Does Adsense Pay $30 Per Click? anyone get $30 Per Click?

17 Sep ’14 Page CTR is 15.01%, Isn’t This Good to My Adsense Account?

18 Sep ’14 Does AnyOne Click Their Own ads Changing Ip address ?

Really? The “don’t be stupid” advice from many lands on deaf ears
There used to be a way of reporting these guys but I couldn’t find the page.

19 Sep ’14 old youtube channel has a one strike, and created new channel on same email, now my new channel running well, but if my old channel suspended, what…

20 Sep ’14 Can i get subscribers from Exchanger program to my YT channel
Not content to post great content, work hard and grow slowly huh?

24 Sep ’14 how to get YT viewers With out against to YT guidelines

Trying to play by the rules?

26 Sep ’14 Can i upload TV Programs To Youtube And Monetise, Help me

2 days later and to hell with the rules, I’ll just steal content. No one will bother with me because I come from a war-torn island nation that I bet Americans have never heard of. Suggestions of content that he could create were ignored.

29 Sep ’14 i don’t have any own videos to upload youtube? What should i upload and monetise

So, my tv program idea didn’t work, how else can I get videos to upload without actually getting off my arse and creating them?

6 Oct ’14 Today My Adsense Earnings

Shows his adsense earnings for the day including his CTR which is against Adsense’s TOS.

20 Nov ’14 adsense account disabled, now i need to link my youtube channel’s to new adsense account

Good of him to give the Adsense folk a heads up that there’s a dupe account around with his name on it. His last account seemed to take a while to get banned – or maybe they only audited him once he got close to a payout.

21 Nov ’14 My adsense acc Disabled But Ads is still Showing ?

And he’s still publishing their ads even though he gets no benefit. Adsense should put a “shaming” ad up to warn visitors to the site that the owner is a cheat.

These scams are amusing because they’re played out in public – even with the confession that the account was disabled (that means banned).

If you want to earn online or offline, and you want that earning to be reliable over an extended period of time then play by the rules. Work hard, grow naturally and respect the programs like Adsense that let you earn from your efforts.