Just installed the plugin: AdSense Click-Fraud Monitoring Plugin for Wordpress.

Hope it helps. Can't believe this plugin exist.

If I were you, I would double check with Google to make sure it's in compliance with TOS, since it's not a Google plugin.

The official plugin page FAQ on wordpress says it is not against Google TOS. The <div> is not changing the original AdSense source code. Itīs only a container wrapped around it. It appears many users are already using it.

[wordpress.org...]


netmeg, question.. have you ever been clickbombed in your years of experience with Adsense? How do you prevent it?

Yes, and I don't believe it's preventable. Personally I would not use a plugin that affects AdSense, written by someone unknown to me, that was not officially sanctioned by Google, or at least not until I had a trusted developer vet the code, but I'm conservative that way. Very possibly it's fine (though hard to measure how effective) but not a risk I myself would take.

Thanks, Netmeg. What did do when you were clickbombed? Did you just wait for Google to adjust the earnings in Finalized Earnings?

I assume Google detects invalid clicks in real time but I still see the large sum from yesterday. Will this be adjusted in Finalized Earnings?

At first I took the ads off, then after repeated assurances from Google that they would handle it, I just left it there. Last month I had 711 clicks late one Sunday night on one channel, that were not taken away till the end of the month. What can you do? Google said it was fine. I don't think it's fine (what if that advertiser had that money deducted from his account for three weeks? That affects how he can bid) But - that's the way it works.

And no, I have no placement issues, or drop downs, or over blending issues, or any of that.

Personally I would not use a plugin that affects AdSense, written by someone unknown to me, that was not officially sanctioned by Google, or at least not until I had a trusted developer vet the code, but I'm conservative that way.

I agree 100%...the risk isn't worth the reward (whatever that may be).

Clickbombed here too yesterday.

1402 clicks on one site, single page, one ad.

Pageviews field in Adsense at Zero for this page, just a single ad being clicked to pieces from Spain.

Clicks were spread out throughout the day, but might be Adsense lagging as well.

Checked RAW access log, Banned spanish IP, Removed Ad, Sent Gadsense a notice.

Click bomb revenue stayed and now in the stats for this month.

All quiet now.

Strangeness!

It looks as it happen everywhere.

On sunday 2 channels from one of my sites get unusually high number of clicks.

Monday i've contacted Adsense team about it. Still not response.

A hour a go it happen again but now on another (very popular website) website on a couple channels.

I've a couple minutes a go sign to Statcounter, placed code and i'm gonna to monitor now what happen there (if it happen again).

Statcounter have very nice option "exit Links" where you can monitor who click on Ads and when.

Thank you so much. This made me feel better. Good to know i'm not alone.

What's going with adsense. Do you think a rival network is doing this sabotage? Or the problem is Adsense tinkering their invalid click filter? Very frustrating.

There's lots of posts here about invalid activity, you should read up on them.

The StatCounter exit link stuff is not all that accurate when it comes to AdSense. StatCounter will tell you isn't, and Google insists it isn't. In my experience it isn't. But you can get an idea - *some* of them appear to be correct.

It's really bad. Even today, I'm seeing huge amount on my earnings even though the clicks do not move.

I was bombed on Friday Feb 28th and Tue Mar 4th. CTR jumps 30X, numbers show 10x my normal revenue but obviously something is going on big time here. I reported it right away but just silence and no changes yet. I don't want corrupt money and I don't want to lose my account either.

The plus side is that if this is happening widespread, Google must notice it and look into it.

I've a couple years a go (probably 6-7 years a go) installed Asrep. It was really great monitoring program and i liked it. There were a couple nice options to protect user including not showing Ads by clicking number of times from same IP or not showing Ads by clicking based on time etc....

Unfortunately author decided to stop with supporting programs a 4-5 years a go and then program become not compatible with php upgrading and it is not anymore useable.

He was also not correct but i'm happy as it is 75% correct. I do not have experience with Statcounter and maybe is not full accurate but i'm happy as it is accurate at least for 70-75%. And what i can see till now it works very well.

Attacks did happen till now in very short time and if statcounter can show me and log some things then it can be very helpful in finding a bit more about attacks.

If someone know something better than Statcounter then share it with us.

I was click-bombed last month on two of my sites. Join the club. Between the increased fluctuations in daily earnings (clicks being taken back), the click bombing, etc., I think the AdSense team is really turning the knobs on the black box that is AdSense. They have to be aware of what's going on, I've read many similar reports lately from members on this forum.

I think we can just do what we can to minimize potential fraud and keep going until we hear something official from AdSense...

Hmm all these people responsible for all these shenanigans, plus spammers, plus, plus, plus...

Maybe we could invite them all to a quiet Australian Pub Car Park...

Simply for a "convivial pub discussion"

The Australian remedy.

Still getting click bombed here in one of my sites for 2 days now.

Yep, me too. It is what it is.

Really, Netmeg? Do you just leave your ads on the site? How many click bombs did you receive yesterday? Since when did yours started? Mine since march 4.

Based on my site data/stats, I have reason to believe that what's happening is not clickbombing but a glitch on google's end. The problem seems to be widespread as many are reporting the same problem on google forum.

Somehow the Gadsense click validation mechanism isn't able to filter these high frequency clicks out.

It seems to me machine-gun clicks are processed in the background to validate / correct the too-good-to-be-true revenue later in the month.

I see the clicks coming in at a lower frequency being validated / corrected through out day.

I think on the scale of the mighty Gadsense, clickbombing is simply business as usual. Just as normal as ditching publisher accounts.

Really, Netmeg? Do you just leave your ads on the site? How many click bombs did you receive yesterday? Since when did yours started? Mine since march 4.

I first noticed sometime in October.

Yesterday? About 925 clicks on a channel/placement that normally this time of year would get a tenth of that. Most days the clicks are gone by the next day, but yesterday's are still showing, so they'll be taken off at the end of the month. So my reports for this month are already hosed.

The reason I leave them up NOW is because it's happening to you, too. Well not you specifically, but the fact that so many are experiencing the same thing at the same time tells me my account is now probably as safe as it could be under the circumstances. If it were *just* me, then yes, I'd take the ads off again in a heartbeat. But I've been prowling the Google forum, WebmasterWorld, the AdSense Publishers Panel, and even the private AdSense forums that nobody talks about, and it's happening everywhere. In this case, there's safety in crowds.

And also, I don't know at this point if these clicks are real, or there's just some weird reporting glitch going on. I have Google Analytics, Piwik Analytics, StatCounter and raw log files, and I've gone over them all with a fine tooth comb - none of this behavior shows up there.

So at this point, I've exhausted my options and the ball is in Google's court.

I kindof doubt that it's actual clickbombing, since (at least for me) the page views remain an order of magnitude lower than the number of click received. Happening again today for the 2nd time in a few weeks.

I don't know at this point if these clicks are real, or there's just some weird reporting glitch going on

The glitch theory is gaining on all others in my mind at this point. Seeing the red bar right now so who knows what "fix" is in the works at this very moment.

Not that I wish this whatever this glitch/sabotage/click bombing is on anyone, but I do feel better that it is happening to a lot of us at the same time.

70% ctr in one of my sites. Yikes. No malicious clicks on my web stats though. I wonder if the bot has our cache files and click bombing them so we won't be able to track the activity in the logs.

It may just be a coincidence but I just found a crappy website with my Adsense code on it. The same channel with what I thought was click bombing running my states to over 50% CTR but no more pageviews than normal. The website appears to load a few different websites code at once and then auto redirects onto a ad. Like they have some auto click thing hitting a few sites from this one site. I do have the authorized site option on and have for years but I wonder if something tricky is going on and it just isn't detected properly.

Adam, if the site in question is the culprit, it will show on your performance reports under Sites.

Yes it should but maybe someone has found a trick around it for now and this is why we are seeing more reports on bombing lately? Until it is caught and adapted to this method. Haven't seen a site set up like this one before. Not sure what the benefit is though. Other than harming Google, advertisers and the other websites. Maybe it is to attack a certain advertiser and increase their spend.