Blog For Money - Make Money from Blogging

In general practice, Google uses a 3-stage detection methods to detect click frauds and invalid clicks:

1. Real Time Filters: In this stage, automated algorithms from Google filter out invalid clicks in real time. All the clicks are analyzed for click fraud. This stage detects most of the invalid clicks in advance and prevents those clicks from reaching your account in the first place.

2. Offline Analysis: After the first stage of real time filter, most of the invalid clicks are automatically filtered out. The second step involves manual analysis of clicks. This stage is mainly focused on the Adsense network. In case some invalid clicks still pass through this stage, Google has a policy that states that if you have been charged for invalid clicks in the past 2 months, you see a credit in your "Billing Summary" labeled "Adjustment-Click Quality".

3. Investigations: Almost all the clicks are filtered out in the first two stages itself. In the last stage of the 3-stage system, all the clicks and advertiser inquiries are investigated by the Google click quality system. If invalid clicks are detected, a refund is made to the advertiser.

Google takes click fraud protection to the advertisers very seriously and is doing a great deal of researches on updating its click fraud detection technology regularly. But on the publisher's side, I'm still afraid that the detection system is far from perfect, and hence often ban the innocent publishers. It is not hard to hear many publishers claiming that their Adsense account has been lost due to invalid clicks. How poor it is.