So today I logged in to check my email and I look and I see the following message:From: Google AdSense adsense-adclicks@google.comNow, I have no clue what prompted this or why I got this. This came out of the blue. At first I thought it was a phishing email or something similar. But, I went to log into my Adsense account and I got an error saying my account was disabled.
To: xxxxxx@spamcop.net
Subject: Google AdSense Account Disabled
Hello xxxxxx,
Your AdSense account was found to be related to an account previously
disabled for invalid click activity and we have therefore disabled your
account. Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed
further participation in AdSense and do not receive any further
payment. The earnings on your account will be properly returned to the
affected advertisers.
As outlined in our program Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the
right to terminate any publisher's participation at any time.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Now, I have never once been paid by Google and last time I checked I think I had like $20 total in my account, after like several YEARS of using Adsense. So what's the deal? I never asked anyone to click on my ads, and I only used the Adsense code on two sites. This one, and another one that's currently under construction and has like zero visitors.
I recently started getting some very strange flash ads taking over the top of my page. I thought this was Adbrite using their new intermission ads, which I disabled. So, I contacted them and they said that it absolutely wasn't theirs and as far as they knew, Adsense didn't do this either. They were very nice and their rep, Katie, took the time to look over and try to find out where they were coming from but after examing the source code and having one of her managers look at it, she was at a loss to find out where it was coming from, calling it "very suspicious". I was worried to, but after examining the source code of the page I could find no details about any kind of ads. The only thing I'd recently added was the Bravenet poll on the right that runs in javascript. It shows a bravenet ad on the page when you click to vote or view the results, which I have no problem with, but I thought that maybe it was their script that was generating the ads.
Bravenet has a lot of very cool free services for websites and blogs, so I decided to use them. Blogger's help recommended them as one of the free polls to use, and because they said they didn't use popups. I posted a message on their forum asking about this, and haven't heard back from anyone at Bravenet.
However, apparently I am not the only one who has gotten this email. After doing a Google Search for adsense "invalid click activity" it seems there are quite a few people having this problem. A site called Google-adsense-sucks.com is apparently filing a class action lawsuit against Google for a similar problem. Google has a Better Business Bureau report, but it seems most of the complaints have been resolved. There also are no results for "Adsense" on ripoffreport.com.
Hopefully my issue will be resolved though. I sent them a response email asking them what they were talking about and hopefully they will review my account and see that there was some kind of error. I wish they would actually investigate the problem first and send out some kind of warning before totally disabling peoples account. If there was some kind of problem, I would like to know about it so I could correct it before having my account totally closed and then getting an email being accused of fraud.
I have personally had it out with quite a few sites that claimed to give out free gifts for completing offers and referring people, and had to end up using a collection agency to recovery my funds. I hope I won't have to go to great lengths with Google to try and get 20 bucks and my account back online. I really just want to write this blog and my other site and hopefully make a little money from showing ads that might be relevant to the people reading this. I'm obviously not trying to rip off Google for huge amounts of money as some site owners do, using techniques like iframing and other fraudulent methods.
If anyone has any suggestions or stories to share, feel free to post them.
Still no word from Google! Check the link below for the Google Adsense Class Action Suit...
UPDATE: My Adsense Account has been reopened. See here for my story.
