Fighting scraper fire with fire?

[SEFL]

Hi there,

I was working on something else for a client (I'm in their office now) and I noticed in the process of looking up info an Adsense block that clearly contained a scraper site ad.

And that gave me a thought...what if I clicked the ad and did nothing with the resulting page? In other words, what would the ramifications be if I clicked the ad with no intention to buy or do anything?

This isn't my own site, so I would have nothing to gain. But I see scraper site ads at least 15-20 times a day in GAS blocks.

On the one hand, it's cheating an advertiser. On the other hand, it's advertising nothing at all.

So I'm not really sure what the ethical stance would be on this. I can see an argument either way.

Thoughts?

[polarmate]

The best thing to do would be to report the site to Adsense Abuse: adsense-abuse@google.com

These scraper sites make money by the margins between revenues from AdSense / advertising on their scraper sites less the advertising costs on programs like Adsense.

[Connie]

In addition to what Manisha said I would suggest blocking the offending ISPs.

Also you might want to subscribe to IncrediBILL's Random Rants (http://incredibill.blogspot.com/).

We have some post under bad bots here. Sorry don't have the link right now, but you might want to search for it and read what has been posted.

[SEFL]

How would one block the offending IPs though, Connie? These are just random GAS ads in blocks on sites that are normally useful. And I don't want to block the IPs of those sites because it's not their fault that a scraper comes on board.

polarmate: I considered reporting them, but the problem I had with doing so is that all a scraper has to do to skirt the issue is register another domain name, set up a new piece of crap, get a Google Adwords account and they're back in business. Not only that, in doing so they're out nothing because I didn't click the ads...I just reported them. Not only that, I don't want to fill out an abuse report 20 times a day.

That's why I thought of the idea of clicking the ads. If I click the ads, and then don't click anything on the site, they're out money (however slight) and if enough people go along with the thinking, it might discourage spammer-scraper types.. In other words, kind of a self-policing against the scraper sites and their owners. Any other alternative, they're out nothing.

Again, I may be wrong...I'm not sure. I'm really not. Let's hear some more thoughts!

[polarmate]

You're clicking the ads for the wrong reasons, to begin with. Then it is encouraging for such scrapers sites because you increase their CTR and you become a reason for them to keep going. They take your click as a feedback that their campaigns are working. Clicking on the ads may make a dent in their pocket but it could just as well make the problem worse.

It could also put the publisher in a bind: if you start clicking on the ads on the publisher's site, it could very well appear like the site hired someone to click on the ads on his site. The wrong account could be suspended ie the publisher's instead of the spammer's.

It's very easy to sign up on Adsense with a perfectly valid site and then publish the ads on scraper sites. It's high time Google was able to figure this out but obviously they are not there yet.

[Dave Hawley]

Most definately report them to Google. They NEED to know about these sorts of things so they can solve it long term. They have more resources and geeks than anyone here.

[jfrovich]

Connie
recheck your link.

[Connie]

How would one block the offending IPs though, Connie?
Based on your title or subject you said this was a scrapper.

It would take a little research, but scrappers can be blocked.

Bill could shed more light on this if he is so inclined.

[Connie]

Originally posted by jfrovich
Connie
recheck your link.
Thanks Jason. I have corrected the link.

[grungee]

Yeah I hate those sites so I make sure I never click on one of their ads. But are they doing anything wrong? I actually have no idea how they could make money, I have tried adsense and it *****, low payments per click. I only leave 1 ad on purely as there is nothing better that I could find in Australia yet and it hasn't hurt our incoming work.

[Connie]

They make money by having thousands of scraped sites out there. A few click here a few clicks there. It adds up based on the number of scrapped sites.

[SEFL]

Actually...you guys have given me a bit of an idea. And it's so friggin' obvious I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier!

Thanks. I'll keep you guys posted.

[grungee]

Originally posted by Connie
They make money by having thousands of scraped sites out there. A few click here a few clicks there. It adds up based on the number of scrapped sites.

But if they are paying for people to land on their site, the amount I see from google clicks wouldn't justify an placing an ad anywhere for any term in google.

[IncrediBILL]

So I'm not really sure what the ethical stance would be on this. I can see an argument either way.

It's still click fraud, no matter who you steal from, so don't go down that slippery slope.

Just report 'em

[Dave Hawley]

Fully agree, report them so the whole www can eventually benefit.