Illegal Click Fraud: Google Adsense Clicks being Sold Openly on US eBay site

[mandy]

Several eBay sellers are selling Google AdSense Clicks on the US eBay site - in other words, they are offering to commit click fraud.  Do a search for adsense clicks on eBay and you will find at least a dozen eBay auction and eBay Stores listings offering to click on AdSense ads.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=adsense+clicks

A few of the auctions and piece of sh.it sellers who are selling AdSense clicks:

seller: dsimms6 of North Carolina
auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/5-GOOGLE-ADSENSE-ADS...dZViewItem

I WILL CLICK 5 OF YOUR ADS EACH AND EVERYDAY FOR 5 DAYS!!!

seller: suze2 of Ohio
auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/50-CLICKS-ON-YOUR-AD...dZViewItem

I will personally visit your google adsense website and click on your sponsers advertisements!!!!!!
This listing is for 200 Clicks in a 20 day span!!!!!
I will visit your website daily for 20 days and click on 10 ads per visit!

seller: troublesumfasho at Florida
http://cgi.ebay.com/10-GOOGLE-ADSENSE-AD...dZViewItem

YOU WILL GET A TOTAL OF 10 CLICKS TO YOUR ADSENSE WEBSITE OR SITES YOU CAN SPREAD THEM OUT BETWEEN 1-5 DAYS YOU LET ME KNOW AND IT WILL BE DONE . 

http://cgi.ebay.com/GOOGLES-ADSENSE-CLIC...dZViewItem

I  will visit your sites  and click on at least 10 of your advertisers!

Whether Google Adsense, Yahoo ads, MSN ads, just tell me where to go.

I am interested in any ads  guarantee  10 clicks

http://cgi.ebay.com/GOOGLES-ADSENSE-CLIC...dZViewItem

I  will visit your sites  and click on at least 10 of your advertisers!

Whether Google Adsense, Yahoo ads, MSN ads, just tell me where to go.

I am interested in any ads  guarantee  10 clicks

[regic]

Searching by description reveals several more boinkheads on eBay who are offering their Adsense fraud services to the highest bidder.  :

eBay should ban every one of these sellers.  If it doesn't it is in effect condoning illegal activities on its site.  In light of the legal pressure Google is currently under from AdWords advertisers who are concerned about click fraud, I would expect Google's legal department to take action against the sale of AdSense clicks on eBay.

[bargainbloodhound]

I'm posting this on the eBay boards

EDIT: posted.  I borrowed half your post RC.

[landofsmiles]

You just did your good deed for the day, BBH. That's a public service. 

[bargainbloodhound]

The eBay problem is minor compared to some websites that sell the same services in Eastern Europe and India.

Check out "click monkeys dot com" (I refuse to link to them).  Click on their rates, specials, and about us pages. 

[sneakymagenta]

Click fraud ought to be punishable by public hanging. 

[amy]

[quote author=landofsmiles link=topic=4368.msg17460#msg17460 date=1152632400]
You just did your good deed for the day, BBH. That's a public service. 
[/quote]

Too bad eBay or Google don't do their good deeds for the advertisers who buy AdWords and are getting ripped off.  The latest estimate is advertisers lost $800 million due to fraudulent clicks last year.

Google CEO's Eric Schmidt thinks the best solution is to "let it happen"

Eventually, the price that the advertiser is willing to pay for the conversion will decline, because the advertiser will realize that these are bad clicks, in other words, the value of the ad declines, so over some amount of time, the system is in-fact, self-correcting. In fact, there is a perfect economic solution which is to let it happen.

full article: http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/index.php?p=219

[mandy]

A followup to that ZDNet blog piece:

Eric Schmidt’s comment's on click fraud being ’self correcting’ has to be looked at as a terrible PR blunder for Google.

There is a much bigger problem to click fraud than just advertisers maintaining an “efficient buy”. In the Web 2.0 world of easily being able to create content; spam, spammers, and the people making money in fraudulent ways are creating a system that can potentially cripple the net we know.

Schmidt claiming efficiency in this case, is like the cost-benefit analysis Ford had used to compare the cost of an $11 repair against the cost of paying off potential law suits...

full article: http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/index.php?p=221

[sneakymagenta]

Good work. 4 of the listings you linked to were removed and one :asshat2:  was NARU'd: suze2 (fb 929).

[rose]

In fact, there is a perfect economic solution which is to let it happen.

It's a perfect economic solution for him because it increases the value of his Google stock.