Google Adwords Chargeback Fraud?
It seems that fraud at Adwords has reached such epidemic proportions that Google (NASDAQ GOOG) has resorted to random calls to verify order activity. While Google would typically take the stance that a small amount of fraud is warranted when you consider the number of Google Adwords advertisers, it appears that this is no longer the case.
Seems that Google has started staffing for internal risk people to contact new customers at random to confirm whether transactions are legitimate or not. Seems even the almightily Google can’t create a sophisticated enough algorithm to thwart known fraudsters via online transactions. Guess this makes me wonder—-what they are doing on fraudulent clicks?
Ultimately if Google can’t combat this issue, it may see its stock price continue to plummet as this once mighty giant can’t protect its golden goose from something the average merchant finds problematic. I guess this begs the question was eBay (NASDAQ EBAY) right in that Google isn’t ready for prime time when it comes to transaction processing? Ultimately, only time will tell if Google will face problems when it comes to transaction fraud.

Comment by gsim on 11 February 2008:
Fraud? I doubt so, looks totally legit if you ask me, but that’s my opinion, take it or leave it.
Comment by Suyash on 11 February 2008:
well this had to happen considering the fact that there are millions of advertisers with no traffic and huge dreams of making it online.. and even rightly said even the almighty google cannot stop this mayhem caused by online fraud gurus..
Comment by Himanshu on 11 February 2008:
Well basically google is ultimately gonna die of its own damn faults.. they impose soo many restrictions on the publishers that fraud is the only way out for them
Comment by Pieter on 11 February 2008:
I think Google will be just fine, they are so innovative in these issues that there should be no problem for them to save this.
Comment by Jasneet on 12 February 2008:
Adsense is one of the main income stream for google and more over if Google is not able to get fraud out of this one then it would surely have a tough time in future.
Comment by James on 12 February 2008:
Time and again, google adwords has been struck with such controversies and they also have enough money to tackle such issues, but i wonder how long can they continue with such instances. How long can they play with investors money!
Comment by Amrit on 12 February 2008:
Goolgle is a good and big company and i am sure that they would find some way out to stop this fraud from continuing in their company.
Comment by Money on 12 February 2008:
Goolge would surely get some way to get this mess snapped out. They are a big company and had always been a step ahead of scammers. So i trust in them that they would handle it out in some way.
Comment by Monkey on 12 February 2008:
Google need to take care of this thing first as this one the only main revenue generator of the company and if its customers see these kind of things happening often then they would surely look for alternate advertising networks.
Comment by zhar on 12 February 2008:
This is one of the major problems Google is facing now. Even new small startup’s have better anti-fraud algorithm than Google’s. Google is busy concentrating on wireless spectrum and social networks when their main money generator is disintegrating.
Comment by Matt on 13 February 2008:
Google is slowly losing their grip on their main source of revenue earner and been concentrating on unnecessory front these days. I heard that they have outsourced their adwords team to India and hence this deterioration in service and fraud prevention!
Comment by martin on 13 February 2008:
Well Google has to pull up its socks and start hiring more people in anti-fraud techniques. If not, it will just fade away. This is something they have to concentrate in 2008.
Comment by Larry Johnston on 15 February 2008:
I am still fighting with google about the click frauds that i had with my account and they are still solving the case and hope to get back the amount i had invested in their adwords which dont end up as just another case of chargeback fraud. Google should act fast, else they might lose customers like me soon!
Comment by DayDreamer on 24 February 2008:
Click bombing can be used to target your competitor’s site and getting him banned him from google. and google can’t think of this simple fact and take steps on innocent webmasters. This reflects in adwords accounts and they loose customers. Is the big G not big enough?
Comment by thinktank on 24 February 2008:
If their fraud levels get too great, they could always require people to mail them checks, ROFL :D
Comment by Rootkit on 27 February 2008:
Google needs to concentrate on all these problems in order for them to excell in all directions.. hope they learn from their mistakes .