Click bombing and what to do against it

Click bombing is a very dirty method people on the internet use to destroy other peoples web sites income from adsense. It consists basically in clicking repeatedly on the ads on the opponents web site. Not just one or two times; hundred of times. Google will quickly react and close down the account that receives such clicks or at least lock it. Mission accomplished, one more opponent out of the race. Scary, isn’t it?

Yesterday, my Google Account received far more ad clicks then usual, approximately 20 times more, here on hospitalera.com. Click bombing? No idea. Perhaps it was only due to the vastly increased traffic I experienced at the same time, unique visitors were up by 150%. But bearing in mind the threats in two of the comments of my latest blog posts I got cautious and so I reported it to Google. Yes, I reported my own blog to Google! Why and how? First it is better too lose a few dollars from invalid clicks, than loosing my whole Adsense Account.
Actually reporting suspected click bombing to Google is the only method, apart from personal phone calls to Google employees, that can prevent you from having your account closed. To make this report go to Google Adsense Support and fill out the provided form and choose “reporting unusual activity on my account”, fill in all the details you have and send off asap.
Most likely you will never hear back from Google, but they take note, check your account and when they suspect that some or all of the clicks you received during that reported period were fraudulent, they will deduct the money from your account. If the clicks are considered legitimate, the money stays. Today my account is back to normal numbers, both in visitors and ad clicks, on all my sites. If it would have been a full blown click bombing attack it would have gone on and then I would have removed, temporarily, my adsense code from the affected domains. As this was not the case, I left them where they are. So, summary for Click Bombing prevention and therapy

• Keep a close eye on your adsense stats to actually notice when things go wrong.
• If you notice a click bomb attack, immediately report it to Google via this form.
• If the attack continues, remove all your Google Ads from the affected domains.

Click bombing is a nasty, dirty method to try to get other people out of your way by affecting their adsense income. If you react quickly and report it to Google before they lock your account, you can lessen the damage intended. If you notice it too late and Google has already locked down your account it will take far more work to convince them that it wasn’t you that committed click fraud in the first place!