Google AdSense is a scam!

by Stephen Blair on Apr.05, 2009, under General Posts

My Google adsense account was deactivated to day with no warnings no notices or anything. I cannot even get in-touch with anyone at Google to dispute this. I was supposed to receive my very first and much anticipated $100 payment from them this month, but it never showed. Mind you it took me almost 6 months to get that much built up so this was a big deal for me and I was quite excited to get this first check. A few days ago I requested that they re-send my check because I never received it. I got no response or anything and today I received the below email stating that my ad sense account has been disabled.

Is this really how the big internet giant Google makes it’s money? I can’t believe that they would have to nickel and dime the little guys like myself out of $100 to make a buck on their services. For over 6 months I have given up prime real estate on my websites to earn that $100 and they just pull the plug. That seams like a great business plan. They must just figure they are so big and popular that scamming a few little users here and there will be well worth it, and maybe it is, but I am not going down quietly on this one.

As of today I am 100% completely anti-Google. I have already canceled all of my Google accounts and services and I encourage anyone reading this to take a hard look at which Google services you use, find a replacement and cancel your Google account as well. If you don’t want to do the looking, post a comment here with which Google services you currently use and I will find you an alternative myself.

By the way, here is the wonderful letter they sent me out of the blue, with no previous warnings or anything:

Hello,

While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense
account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since
keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our
advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.

Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the
interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We
realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance
for your understanding and cooperation.

If you have any questions about your account or the actions we’ve taken,
please do not reply to this email. You can find more information by
visiting
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

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8 Comments for this entry

rgloginja
April 5th, 2009 on 6:17 pm
And to think I am waiting on approval for one of these accounts… Thank you. I’ve made up my mind.

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Stephen Blair
April 6th, 2009 on 2:29 pm
Other people I have found that have also been scammed by Google:

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/090306-120235

http://www.governmentsecurity.org/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t21605.html

http://www.gidforums.com/t-9822.html

http://www.leefleming.com/neurotwitch/index.php?/weblog/comments/google_adsense_a_scam/

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/4561.htm

http://seoblackhat.com/2009/03/07/what-if-everyone-whose-account-was-canceled-sued-google/

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Iskander
September 10th, 2009 on 3:54 pm
Well you can add my site to that list, I got kicked out but not at $100, I was at $40 or so,..Seriously who does that? What would you say if an affiliate program kicks you out and takes your money and doesn’t offer any proof or any real reason other then “we got a funny feeling about you so tuff muffins , we are taking your money.. oh oh but not for us, for our beloved advertisers” what a crock! I wouldn’t be surprised if google went the way of Enron! anyway the program they offer i realy use is analytics. do you have a non google replacement for that one?

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- Stephen Blair
  September 18th, 2009 on 9:30 am
  Iskander, I have just started using a free analytics service called Woopra. Aside from it taking about a week for them to approve and activate my account with them, I am quite impressed with the analytics they provide in almost real-time using their desktop app. I have their desktop app installed on my Vista machine as well as my Mac and it is pretty slick.
  
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jcnieves
September 17th, 2009 on 2:46 pm
Put one more website to the list, our account was cancelled with the same text and the same situation, being on the limit of the Google payment, the account gets cancelled, all this Google adsense is a fraud, I used that also as an advertiser and it is very expensive for a few clicks and pays nothing to the publishers for thousands clicks and visits with this same scam behavior.

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- Stephen Blair
  September 17th, 2009 on 3:59 pm
  It just amazes me how obvious they are about it, yet remain to stay in business. Comments like yours and the others here really make me wish my website were something more popular and powerful than my little blog. I believe we would find an incredible amount of cases where Google has done this and far more pissed of website owners than we could imagine… Maybe enough to tackle the giant with a barrage of lawsuits. I personally am still searching for a reliable and trust-worthy replacement for AdSense that is not known for ripping off the little guy. If anyone has any suggestions please post them here.
  
  Also, thank you for your donation jcnieves, your generosity is greatly appreciated!
  
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acrow
October 26th, 2009 on 4:44 pm
I am in Google Adsense hell right now too. I got my notice on September 29, 2009 and filled out the “Invalid Activity Appeal” form. I have yet to receive a response from Google.

I have pretty much reached my boiling point with them and would like to know of alternate methods for earning income from advertising.

I like the “idea” of Google but think they have just become a bully when it comes to customer service.

Who do you guys use instead?

Thanks!

Aaron

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- Stephen Blair
  October 27th, 2009 on 8:09 am
  I am still seeking a good alternative, but have not found one that I would vouch for at this point. Please drop a note here if you end up finding anything yourself.
  
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