Live data from Hacker News

$11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

adsensepublishersettlement.com

81–90 of 137 posts

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#81
post #39

When I was in college I had a website that I ran google ads on. I let a balance build up over time so I could use the money to buy school books. When I attempted to cash out Google (which up until that time had no problem profiting off of my site) decided that I was part of a clickfraud ring and refused to pay out the money. There was no way to appeal. Honestly, to this day, I am still far less likely to use Google s…

when it comes to customer support Do they have customer support? Last time I used my google account (a few years ago) to attempt to buy a Nexus, my transaction was flagged as fraud and I was locked out of my account.. I tried for a few days to find a way to contact anyone from Google.. never happened.. I eventually gave up and bought an iPhone and it was ironically the best thing that could have happened in that scen…

Sure, chat support is usually fast or you can have them call you. The cheap, outsourced labor is actually very good at English.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#82
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are you talking about the $100 threshold?

It was a 70€ threshold over here, but yes. I was waiting to cash out, and just days before I got a "oops it was fraud", and they decided to keep it all. It was my first negative experience with Google, and definitely not the last.

I was always extremely scared of that happening to my account. I was making fairly good money, but it was hard to trust it with all of the random shutdown stories I read about. I tried several alternatives, but none paid anywhere near as much. They effectively had a monopoly on the online advertising market.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#83
post #46

Why just 2010 to 2018? Mine was terminated back in 2008 with about $500 in it.

Mine was terminated before that, and to this day I can't open an adsense account, even with a site that gets a million views per year.

file an LLC and get an EIN

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#84
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are you talking about the $100 threshold?

It was a 70€ threshold over here, but yes. I was waiting to cash out, and just days before I got a "oops it was fraud", and they decided to keep it all. It was my first negative experience with Google, and definitely not the last.

For lack of another comparison it reminds me of dirty cops pulling over a suspected criminal or known criminal and acting like they are doing the person a favor by taking all of their drugs, money, and loose possessions. It's a fucked up and weird world we are living in. Gotta protect what you can how you can.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#85
post #63
post #12

This was years ago for me, but as bad as it is losing the amount earned, it was just the lack of response when trying to understand why you were terminated. I had no idea why I was banned. I didn't employ any shady tricks. The only thing I noticed in the few weeks prior to the account banned was a higher CTR. I actually emailed Adsense support at that time to let them know that it was out of the ordinary for my site.…

Same for me here. The lack of response was ridiculous. I would have loved to been told what was wrong or why the ban so I could at least try to resolve the issue somehow. But the only thing I received in return was that the decision was final. I noticed a higher CTR prior to the ban, but nothing else out of the ordinary. I had Webmaster tools and Analytics on site, so after the ban I could still research backwards, a…

Same here. They won't do anything about a wrongful ban unless you're someone making decent money.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#86
post #39

When I was in college I had a website that I ran google ads on. I let a balance build up over time so I could use the money to buy school books. When I attempted to cash out Google (which up until that time had no problem profiting off of my site) decided that I was part of a clickfraud ring and refused to pay out the money. There was no way to appeal. Honestly, to this day, I am still far less likely to use Google s…

I had something similar happen. I still remember the cancellation notice. It was like, "don't bother contacting us; this decision is final." No way to see why they thought my adsense account was a risk. No evidence. Just, "thanks for the referrals, now GTFO"

No way for me to even try to prove that it wasn't me doing anything.

I had been spending a bit of money on AdWords for my law office website at the same time. Stopped that right away. It was my futile and meaningless attempt at retribution, of course. :)

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#87

I get the "We think your business is a scam and so we are terminating our relationship" but I don't understand why "... and we'll keep the money." doesn't result in criminal charges.

All ad networks take money away from publishers all of the time. For example, it takes a while to compute the quality score of ad clicks and realize that a site's traffic is full of bots that click on ads and never buy anything. The publisher will see income that gets subtracted back out, sometimes a month or two later. The advertiser (presumably) gets a refund. It appears that Google did something different this tim…

Interesting, I've seen people advice each other to support apps they can't buy by tapping on ads - were they actually harming devs?

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's about the use of Latin for a phrase with a common English version.

With a verbatim translation. How apropos.

Don't you mean "How apropos (appropriate)"? Or (on the nose) maybe.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#89
post #39

When I was in college I had a website that I ran google ads on. I let a balance build up over time so I could use the money to buy school books. When I attempted to cash out Google (which up until that time had no problem profiting off of my site) decided that I was part of a clickfraud ring and refused to pay out the money. There was no way to appeal. Honestly, to this day, I am still far less likely to use Google s…

The truth is no one knows how much Google has stolen from customers under such excuses.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#90
post #39

When I was in college I had a website that I ran google ads on. I let a balance build up over time so I could use the money to buy school books. When I attempted to cash out Google (which up until that time had no problem profiting off of my site) decided that I was part of a clickfraud ring and refused to pay out the money. There was no way to appeal. Honestly, to this day, I am still far less likely to use Google s…

Are you me? Same story, except that it's my users uploading questionable (not explicit) images, and I quickly restricted where the ad would show. Then suddenly I am committing fraud and bye bye account.

Up to this day, I pretty much avoid all Google services except a forwarding Gmail account, Youtube, and some searches. I also continuously recommended anyone who asked my advice to avoid Google (even more than Facebook.) I've been doing this for the last 10 years already.

Good riddance Google. Your Ad-Sense support was quite frankly, customer unsupport.

Post reply on HN