eARNING TRICK: google scams

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Scam Warning - or Is AdSense a Scam?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Of course AdSense isn't a scam. But this is something we see asked in the forum on a pretty regular basis. If it was a scam, you don't think they'd still be in business do you? AdSense have been one of the most recognized, most trusted (and sometimes most maligned) ad services for over 10 years. You don't have a long-running business like that if you really do perpetrate scams on people. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3YFVt61hcKS8fEGegJzkPc1gZN0pnstOzYtbAa2DlyQFtPlbfPhYTYgITJ1SGhz1KggUyzjbDF60E63QswLrKcJOeri-twCxqa5k_2nic0icC3phUofQV3FUvi3Ep58DYvxd1bFuG0Ps/s1600/ScamWarning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3YFVt61hcKS8fEGegJzkPc1gZN0pnstOzYtbAa2DlyQFtPlbfPhYTYgITJ1SGhz1KggUyzjbDF60E63QswLrKcJOeri-twCxqa5k_2nic0icC3phUofQV3FUvi3Ep58DYvxd1bFuG0Ps/s320/ScamWarning.jpg" width="280" /></a></div>Having said that, I'm sure a lot of people are thinking "oh sure, you'd say that because you help them" ... well, I don't actually help them. The purpose of the forum isn't to help AdSense, it's to help publishers. Many of the people who come to the forum yelling "AdSense is a SCAM" have already been paid, multiple times. So the question I ask is ... how is this a scam? Scams don't pay you at all, in fact, scams don't pay anyone. With over 2 million publishers, the majority receiving regular payments, how is it a scam? It really isn't. A percentage of those yelling "scammer" are the people who are violating policies (some of them on purpose, some of them by accident, or simply because they lack knowledge).  Lots of publishers out there simply don't understand that to get paid, you have to follow the rules. Others don't even realize what the requirements are for AdSense, and fall afoul of the policies by accident, or by signing up with some promotional site that tells them it's safe for AdSense (most aren't, just so you know). <a name="more"></a> And in any automated system, there are sometimes glitches where an individual might not get their payment issued, but those are usually rare and they can be fixed. For those whose earnings are returned to the advertiser ... there generally isn't a glitch or error. It's also not a scam. It's part of the terms. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgedIIoEkzW0gTOkyE9UT9Aoyc6XrPCCQMiZeF0wtWgvOrWFfFq29ewO6Hhd4Pu6vBhJK_L0O396wvxokOf6oWuhxiimSbnwCEmBhGhnjpRNzR0phWLhB8aI44q7-J3rmDa2sXKlI9_OLE/s1600/ohohstickgirl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgedIIoEkzW0gTOkyE9UT9Aoyc6XrPCCQMiZeF0wtWgvOrWFfFq29ewO6Hhd4Pu6vBhJK_L0O396wvxokOf6oWuhxiimSbnwCEmBhGhnjpRNzR0phWLhB8aI44q7-J3rmDa2sXKlI9_OLE/s200/ohohstickgirl.jpg" width="117" /></a>Did you read and agree to the Terms & Conditions when you signed up for AdSense? If so, believe it or not, you agreed to abide by AdSense's decisions. Or, did you just click "I agree" without actually reading it? If you are one of the pubs who didn't read that document you might want to take the time to do it, before some ugly surprise shows up in your inbox. It's always smart to know what you are getting into. Section 5 of the agreement refers to the Payments - here is an excerpt from that section: <blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="c4" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">5.    Payments</div><div class="c2" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; height: 11pt;"></div><div class="c4" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Subject to this Section 5 and Section 10 of these AdSense Terms, you will receive a payment related to the number of valid clicks on Ads displayed on your Properties, the number of valid impressions of Ads displayed on your Properties, or other valid events performed in connection with the display of Ads on your Properties, in each case as determined by Google.  </div><div class="c4" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Unless expressly authorized in writing by Google, you may not enter into any type of arrangement with a third party where that third party receives payments made to you under the Agreement or other financial benefit in relation to the Services.</div><div class="c4" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Payments will be calculated solely based on our accounting. Payments to you may be withheld to reflect or adjusted to exclude any amounts refunded or credited to advertisers and any amounts arising from invalid activity, as determined by Google in its sole discretion.  Invalid activity is determined by Google in all cases and includes, but is not limited to, (i) spam, invalid queries, invalid impressions or invalid clicks on Ads generated by any person, bot, automated program or similar device, including through any clicks or impressions originating from your IP addresses or computers under your control; (ii) clicks solicited or impressions generated by payment of money, false representation, or requests for end users to click on Ads or take other actions; (iii) Ads served to end users whose browsers have JavaScript disabled; and (iv) clicks or impressions co-mingled with a significant amount of the activity described in (i, ii, and iii) above.  </div><div class="c4" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">In addition to our other rights and remedies, we may (a) withhold and offset any payments owed to you under the Agreement against any fees you owe us under the Agreement or any other agreement, or (b) require you to refund us within 30 days of any invoice, any amounts we may have overpaid to you in prior periods.  If you dispute any payment made or withheld relating to the Services, you must notify Google in writing within 30 days of any such payment.  If you do not, any claim relating to the disputed payment is waived.  If an advertiser whose Ads are displayed on any Property defaults on payment to Google, we may withhold payment or charge back your account.</div><div class="c4" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">To ensure proper payment, you are responsible for providing and maintaining accurate contact and payment information in your Account.  You are responsible for any charges assessed by your bank or payment provider.</div></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"> <a href="https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?hl=en_US" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Full Terms & Conditions Link</a></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNiY_sMkE4plRlChIvxO5p6mIokxZpyc5eIAZz6vWVmNOac4ifrU4RMoFZGnKtTbBRv8-ssbCB6KQH-BNHWx8si3jBlMx0Sl0GZ5b2yR9jCLuafWLrkVT-Fe3wiuUf2vTElPgRmUfnNI/s1600/StickfigureBoy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHNiY_sMkE4plRlChIvxO5p6mIokxZpyc5eIAZz6vWVmNOac4ifrU4RMoFZGnKtTbBRv8-ssbCB6KQH-BNHWx8si3jBlMx0Sl0GZ5b2yR9jCLuafWLrkVT-Fe3wiuUf2vTElPgRmUfnNI/s320/StickfigureBoy.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>It's rather interesting to note that many of the people coming to the forum haven't actually read or understood that document, or at least that part of the document. Over and above all of the foregoing, most people who follow the rules and don't get into any sort of hinky/funky situations will receive their payments regularly. There isn't any scam here, except that perpetrated by those who think it's okay to make money without regard to how you make it. The world has rules ... so does AdSense. And just so you know, this isn't something that's exclusive to AdSense advertising. All ad companies have rules - some differ from AdSense and may not be quite as strict, while others have rules that are almost identical to AdSense. If you use ads from other companies on your sites along with AdSense, and haven't taken time to read the terms of those other companies ... well, you just might want to take the time to do that. While AdSense is a widely used product, there are many other advertisers whose ads appear on sites along with AdSense. If you use multiple advertising companies, it's always a good idea to check each advertiser's regulations to keep your income stream running smoothly. AdSense does have appeal options for some publishers, so disabled accounts can often use the appeals process but there is no appeal for temporarily suspended accounts, and as far as I know, there isn't any way to appeal earnings that have been removed (for invalid activity) and returned to the advertiser. The terms state: <blockquote class="tr_bq">If you dispute any payment made or withheld relating to the Services, you must notify Google in writing within 30 days of any such payment.</blockquote>As far as I can tell, that isn't part of the appeal process and most likely, you would need to send that notice by regular postal services to AdSense, since there generally isn't an email address to send it to. The address shown at the bottom of the terms page is the only contact they give. See: <a href="https://www.google.com/intl/en/contact/" target="_blank">Google Contact Options</a> <div style="text-align: right;">posted by J. Gracey Stinson </div></div>

Scam Warning - or Is AdSense a Scam?

Of course AdSense isn't a scam. But this is something we see asked in the forum on a pretty regular basis. If it was a scam, you don...

February 16, 2017

Phishing for AdSense - or How Not to Get Hacked

<div><a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=gracey"><img alt="Bookmark and Share" height="16" src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" style="border: 0pt none ;" width="125" /></a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gracey"></script></div>In recent weeks I have noticed an increase in spam email coming into my mail accounts. In particular, these emails are purported to be from: AdSense AdWords Blogger Google To date, none of them have actually been from any of those places, except the most recent one. They have been from spammers and scammers who hope someone will click a link in the email. Once clicked, the link will take a person to a page that is most likely set up to resemble a real page from any of those places, however, any sign in information you enter will be captured and used by the scammer. How Will a Spammer/Scammer/Phisher Use My Information If you use AdSense, they'll have the information to login to your AdSense account and redirect your earnings to themselves, or the information close out your account, or to do anything you can do in your AdSense account. If you use Blogger, they'll have access to all your blogs. This means they can edit or change them, including putting their own adsense codes on your blog and removing yours. Most likely they are hoping your blogger login information is the same as your AdSense login. And it probably is. With the Google account they can login to any service you use under Google. What To Do When You Get An Email From any Google Source The first thing you should do - don't panic. These guys often send emails saying your AdSense account has been disabled, and telling you to click the link to have it restored. The same sort of email is also used for Blogger accounts. Whatever you do, don't click any links in an email, even if you think it's from AdSense. Find out first who it's really from. AdSense may indeed send you an email that your account is disabled, if it really is. And they do contain links, but usually the link leads only to a page on the AdSense Help Center. The next thing you should do is check the header information. If you use gmail for your login you can show the header information by opening the email. If you use the newer version of gmail, there is a link near the top and off to the right a little that says "show details". <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIXleiIqL_DRizSrsBtCsKg-7gpqydKD8tF-vIw7RJjMTmIZjLGetI0DhqSbVtCzCNw0oknrYRnjGz7dv9S-XyKuV4ts6_ypTkvNvDs-51VeswamjE-gyvnBO86nTxZ_dbks7Jib2qi8c/s1600-h/showdetails.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442625098548446514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIXleiIqL_DRizSrsBtCsKg-7gpqydKD8tF-vIw7RJjMTmIZjLGetI0DhqSbVtCzCNw0oknrYRnjGz7dv9S-XyKuV4ts6_ypTkvNvDs-51VeswamjE-gyvnBO86nTxZ_dbks7Jib2qi8c/s400/showdetails.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 115px;" /></a>When you click that, gmail will display the information in the email headers. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCuuvIaRW7IKfsxecO3-ozjlH1eQx6Gyjb0D2HZR8_EZzfeni-D9LgSmvhogni-6bSVxTFSvXyic6CTUKufhJX5G8pEdLPWTe1BF8ihre-eZAbhACXseB8nz_xIpRqNOmHYpU-MRZKGu0/s1600-h/headerdetails.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442626752279442610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCuuvIaRW7IKfsxecO3-ozjlH1eQx6Gyjb0D2HZR8_EZzfeni-D9LgSmvhogni-6bSVxTFSvXyic6CTUKufhJX5G8pEdLPWTe1BF8ihre-eZAbhACXseB8nz_xIpRqNOmHYpU-MRZKGu0/s400/headerdetails.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 218px;" /></a> Check the information in the "From" and "Reply To" fields, as well as the "mailed by" and "signed-by" fields. If you are still not certain, go the help forum and ask for help deciphering whether or not it's "really" from AdSense or Google or Blogger. Be sure to use the appropriate forum - if the email says it's <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger?hl=en&utm_source=HC&utm_medium=leftnav&utm_campaign=blogger">from Blogger, use the Blogger help forum</a>, if it says it's <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense?hl=en">from AdSense, use the AdSense help forum</a>. When you are unsure - under no circumstances should you click any link in the email. You can check the link by using the google safe browsing diagnostic page for the link. You do that by typing this string in the search bar and appending it with the page named in the link below - the link below is using the url for the blog you are reading now: <a href="http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://helpfulinformationfornewbies.blogspot.com/">http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://helpfulinformationfornewbies.blogspot.com/ </a> Change the part in red to the page url in the email link. The linked page in the email used in the example above can be seen below: <a href="http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http:www.google.com/adplanner"></a><a href="http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http//:www.google.com/adplanner">http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http//:www.google.com/adplanner</a> This tool will tell you whether or not the site is hosting any malware or has been seen in the past to hold any malware. Other things you can do are to copy the link from your email and enter it into your browser search bar. This will take you to the page that the link goes to, where you can see the information on the page. Look at the page carefully and note it's location displayed in the browser. In the case of the email I used as an example, the browser displays the following URL ("x" replaces the real information to protect the innocent): <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghLHpPKrpyoM1dTp1KYDpAe2OPdHH0TJsjEIMti1UGSok04zXWqNJm9Clv4usFxO-hpyUe0GHNQxoZFewdBrTRaiB7DWr965DuRW_xF_3sa2-oKclGQEXmO0uSQtLKyotRPF358HuB9dk/s1600-h/url.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442633096548916626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghLHpPKrpyoM1dTp1KYDpAe2OPdHH0TJsjEIMti1UGSok04zXWqNJm9Clv4usFxO-hpyUe0GHNQxoZFewdBrTRaiB7DWr965DuRW_xF_3sa2-oKclGQEXmO0uSQtLKyotRPF358HuB9dk/s400/url.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 43px;" /></a>You can see that this URL goes to a secure google accounts login page for the Google Ad Planner. If you are still uncomfortable about clicking anything on this page, then leave the page and navigate on your own to your Google Accounts page the way you normally would. Click on the service link from your own Google Accounts page (for wherever the email is from - Blogger or AdSense) and login from there. Take Charge of Your Own Security Never click links in an email without first ensuring it's security. Use safe browsing ad-ons or plug-ins to avoid phishing or malware sites. Use pop-up blockers to prevent scam ads from showing. Read and investigate things before you sign up or click any links. Places You can Find Help with Security Issues "<a href="http://forums.whatthetech.com/forums.html">What The Tech Forums</a>" - trustworthy and helpful with useful free software listings "<a href="http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html">Safer Networking Forums</a>" - also trustworthy will some excellent free software on site "<a href="http://www.google.com/support/websearch/?ctx=web">Google Search Help</a>" - helpful information in their Help Center for safe surfing & browsing.

Phishing for AdSense - or How Not to Get Hacked

In recent weeks I have noticed an increase in spam email coming into my mail accounts. In particular, these emails are purported to be from:...

February 26, 2010

Google Green?

No sermon here today, folks, but thanks to one of the "Top Contributors" (Dan) over on the AdSense Help forums, we're going to shoot for taking a news article and video the "viral" route. What that means is, grab the link for the article, and post to your blogs - everybody. This will help get the word out that not every website who talks about Google or AdSense is on the "up and up". You know all those "almost scams" and "google scams" we've been talking about? Well, here in this article at the link Fox News tells it like it is. Let your friends know there are places they need to be careful of- especially if they are thinking about signing up for AdSense. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTj3qpOp6DbXFNXaPoGNYpCIHFcz9sDDaHCjqYlhyphenhyphennwwP6iKax7k5wIGV3inmDZ93Uko3aw3hB1jZ4jUJS2clP0PBPyOpY0JXgzvNbroNx7D2bxeGYt6qGrGMLBRDJ5pgXdbbARFgRIZA/s1600-h/Snap511.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"> </a> <div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/Investigators_Green_Google_sept_17_2009">Fox Twin Cities - Investigating Google Green</a></div> Remind your friends, if they want to apply for AdSense, then they should do it right at the <a href="https://www.google.com/adsense/support/">Google AdSense homepage</a> and not anywhere else.

Google Green?

No sermon here today, folks, but thanks to one of the "Top Contributors" (Dan) over on the AdSense Help forums, we're going to...

September 18, 2009