1. Anonymous Bronze

    Director at Commercial Reality Ltd

    26 June 2004 15:57pm

    Avatar-blank-50x50

    Apparently a man in California has allegedly been trying to defraud Google first by writing a program which created fraudulent AdSense clicks.  Then he tried to sell his program to web publishers. Did he use AdWords to promote it I wonder?:-

    Headline: Cheat the AdSense system
    Body1: How to cheat AdSense & steal money
    Body2: from Google & advertisers.Info here
    URL: www.AdSenseFraud.com

    Not finding many buyers - did his ad go to the wrong landing page? - he eventually hit on the bright idea of blackmailing Google instead to the tune of $150,000.

    Oddly enough he didn’t get away with it. 

    IMHO if you’re going to blackmail Google you at least ought to be talking real money rather than stuff under the $million mark.

    He doesn’t sound too smart to me but this must be the nightmare scenario for Google and its AdSense program: as soon as stories get out about people successfully cheating the AdSense system, advertisers will take fright and Google, alongside the hundreds of thousands of publishers who rely to a degree on AdSense income, will find a revenue stream under threat.

    Next threat: clicking circles: "I’ll click yours if you click mine."

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