Members of Wensy encourage Adsense click fraud to fund the site

[xwpopper]

http://wensy.com/toast1.6.45/toast.asp?sub=show&action=posts&fid=10&tid=2808
Why pay eBay fees when you can just support your site by clicking ads for the sole reason of making money for the site owner, when

"Our site earns money when we click those ads."

Beware though!

"we get Darren into trouble if we just "pound" on particular links using the same computer (IP address) all the time.  So, we REALLY don't want to do that."

Wait! A member with a little non rinky-dink sense comes in with the truth:

Be very careful here, under the terms of Google Ads, telling people to click on ads to help increase $$ is a cause for losing the right to use Google Ad services.  Google has a way to determine if the clicks are legit, many clicks in a short period of time can result in Wensy losing money.

That's ok, because...

I only click on 1 or 2 a day and do check out the sites I click on to avoid this potential problem mentioned above.Just use common sense when doing this and there should be no problems.

The real question is, would these same sellers ever have paid any attention to any of those ads if they had never been asked? Apparently not, since one was totally new to it:

Yes I have been reading some adds since you mentioned it. I have found a few interesting adds at that. And I will do all I can to help.

That's click fraud. Those are dollars that business owners depended on to receive revenue to continue operating.
If a cashier at the supermarket is stealing credit card numbers under the manager's eyes and he doesn't stop it, he is guilty as well.
The fact that the thread has stayed active for over 7 months confirms to me that the owner of the site approves of click fraud to fund his endeavor.

[sneakymagenta]

The fact that the thread has stayed active for over 7 months confirms to me that the owner of the site approves of click fraud to fund his endeavor.

The fact that the owner Darren Bock's own plea to click on ads has stayed active for 30 months confirms to me without a doubt  that he approves of it.

Advertising:

  You should see some advertising on our site in the next 5 days. The advertising will show up on the top of the page and also to the right of all the listings. We have added this to our site so we can have better placement on the search engines. Please feel free to click on as many sponsor links as possible as we collect money from each of the advertisers. All the money that we gain from advertisers on our site will be used to further advertise our site on the internet. We are expecting to gain over 1000 new members in the next 6 weeks.

http://www.wensy.com/toast1.6.45/toast.asp?sub=show&action=posts&fid=5&tid=16


edit: don't forget, this is the same owner who used to encourage members to manipulate the site's Alexa ranking.

edit: In another newsletter he discouraged users from leaving negative feedback because it would make the site look bad.  Somebody please tell me how a "positive" rating that is obviously a negative helps anyone?

Positive:  Items not recieved! Package mutilated at post office!
Positive:  Items not recieved! Package mutilated at post office!
Positive:  Items not recieved! Package mutilated at post office!

http://www.wensy.com/storeprofile.asp?userid=6

[mandy]

I think I made my feelings on fraudulent clicks clear when I posted this thread several years ago on click fraud:
TT miscreant trolls force eBay to take action against the selling of click fraud on eBay
http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...368.0.html

If you read this old BidWhale thread on PSU you'll  discover that Nisan Auxoo's old BidWhale site encouraged click fraud - the site had a 'support the site by clicking on the ads' message beneath all of the AdSense ads.

the owner's selling ID

eBay requires that its employees identify themselves as an eBay employee when they list an auction.  The smaller sites like Wensy and Alsoshop should follow suit to avoid the problem that occurs when buyers have a problem with a transaction (e.g. Items not recieved! Package mutilated at post office!)  and turn to the auction site for help only to find out that the site's customer service is - the seller they've just reported. 

Somebody please tell me how a "positive" rating that is obviously a negative helps anyone?

False positives and autofeedback defeat the entire purpose of having a feedback system.

[bargainbloodhound]

Click fraud is a subset of invalid clicks that are generated with malicious or fraudulent intent -- in other words, clicks that are intended to drive up advertiser cost or publisher revenue artificially. Sources for these clicks include, but are not limited to:

  # A publisher clicking on his own ads, or encouraging clicks on his ads
  # Users or family members clicking to support the site / publisher

http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/08/defi...fraud.html

report here: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/b...ks_contact

[xwpopper]

report here: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/b...ks_contact

That form is only if you feel you are a victim of click fraud.
Here is the form to send if you are not the victim but see an obvious violation:
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/b...ion_report

[sneakymagenta]

From PatheticallySuckyadviceUnlimited
http://www.powersellersunite.com/about31...c-165.html

eCrater, Vendio, Wensy, Webstores

All of the above are FREE of ALL fees. Plus they show up in Google, unlike iOffer.

Google Product Search:
eCrater 247,000 items listed (less than 10% of items)
iOffer 0
Wensy 0
Webstore 0

Google Organic Search:
iOffer 988,000 pages indexed
eCrater 533,000
Webstore 77,100
Wensy 3,570

Wensy has no exposure in product search OR organic search.  240,000 items and only 3500 pages indexed?  That SUCKS.

All of these marketplace sites' Product Search exposure (0%-10%) SUCKS.  99.9% of my website's items are indexed, and  probably 99.9% of your (the lurker's) website's items are indexed too.