A hypothetical comedy sketch. No agents, real or imagined, were harmed, interrogated or billed per click. ( Chances are if your from Africa your not looking to purchase a $4000 Software Package )
Picture it: you received a ” Bulletmail ” 9.11 warning and a windowless room somewhere in Ottawa. One flickering fluorescent tube. A double-double going cold. Two agents in identical grey suits sit across from me, and one of them slides over a manila folder stamped CLICKS: HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS.
“Mr. Katovic,” he says. “Define click fraud.”
And that’s where it goes sideways for them, because I can make this as easy or as difficult as they like.
The easy version
Click fraud is when somebody clicks an ad with no intention of ever buying anything, so the advertiser pays for nothing. Done. Everybody’s home by supper.
The difficult version
Well, Agent, what is a click? Is it the mouse button going down, or coming back up? If a bot clicks an ad in a forest and no conversion tag hears it, did it still cost four euros? If a phone three time zones away taps my ad at 3 a.m. and leaves in 0.4 seconds, is that fraud, curiosity or a thumb?
The second agent writes “THUMB?” on his notepad and underlines it twice.
Exhibit A has requested a lawyer.
What level of intelligence are we assuming here?
Here’s my question back to the room. If anyone, anywhere, ever planned to run up a click bill on a Canadian through Google, what level of intelligence were they expecting me to have? I gave them a handy menu:
- Level 1, Goldfish: every click is a customer. Wonderful. Spend more.
- Level 2, Golden retriever: notices the clicks, is simply happy to see them.
- Level 3, Raccoon: knows where the bins are and how to open the lids.
- Level 4, Me: timestamps, user agents, referrers and a fresh pot of coffee at 3 a.m.
I read log files the way other people read cottage novels. I have spreadsheets of my spreadsheets. When a visitor shows up with an Infinix phone, Chrome 153 and the attention span of a mayfly, I don’t get angry. I get a highlighter.
The agents exchange a look. The first one closes the folder. “We’ll be in touch.”
“Great,” I say. “On your way out, please click the ad. Slowly. I’m measuring.”
This is satire and entirely hypothetical. kevinkatovic.com is not affiliated with CSIS, the RCMP, Google or any government agency, and no real agent or person is accused of anything here. The featured image is an AI-generated illustration, not a real event.
First of all you dont understand my sense of humor which has to be tolerated…. Now what your going to need is a black guy that fooled the entire detachment at Courtenay…..
“ When it cost’s our officers personally thing’s can get a little violent around here ”
Will SpaceX and Tesla Merge?
┌───────────────────────┬───────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ IP │ Network │ Visitor’s actual time zone / language │
├───────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 38.248.131.108 │ Cogent │ Caracas, Venezuela (es-US) │
├───────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 206.0.154.49 │ Cogent │ Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic │
├───────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 143.105.133.221 / .61 │ Starlink (Lagos node) │ Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (fr-FR) │
├───────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 74.244.188.231 │ Starlink │ N’Djamena, Chad (ar-AE)
Well in so many cases we love what we hear or even love what we see however it becomes clear everything is a deception.
Google agreed to a $100 million settlement in a class action lawsuit involving U.S.-based advertisers who used the AdWords program between 2004 and 2012. The lawsuit accused Google of charging advertisers for clicks on ads that were not actually clicked by users in the right locations. Although Google denies the allegations, they decided to settle to resolve the claims.
NOTE: The claim filing deadline was extended to October 31, 2025.
Who is Eligible for the Settlement?
The settlement is divided into two classes of advertisers:
1. Location Targeting Class: Advertisers who used Google’s location-based targeting feature in their AdWords campaigns
2. Search Bundled Clicks Class: Advertisers whose ads were bundled with other ads on the Google search engine and allegedly did not meet targeting requirements
If you were a part of either class, you may have been eligible for a cash payment based on the amount you overpaid for ads that did not perform as expected.
Claim Filing Deadline: October 31, 2025 [PASSED]
Note: If you wish to exclude yourself from the settlement, you had to submit a written request to the claims administrator by July 20, 2025.
How to Determine Which Class You Belong To
To find out what class you may belong to, think about how you used Google AdWords during the class period (2004 – 2012). If you used located-based targeting to aim ads at users in specific areas, you could fall into the Location Targeting Class. Alternatively, if you participated in campaigns where ads were bundled with other search results and did not meet the intended criteria, you might qualify for the Search Bundled Clicks Class.
Should You Opt In or Opt Out?
In some cases, opting out of a settlement may be the more advantageous option for advertisers, potentially leading to a bigger payout. Our team at CCC has the expertise to help you navigate this decision and potentially connect you with experienced attorneys who can provide legal advice.
Need Assistance?
For more information or help, give us a call at (312) 204-6969 or send us an email.
The claim filing deadline has been extended to October 31, 2025. There are no guarantees that any untimely claims filed after that date will be accepted and included in the distribution of the settlement fund. See more information at the Court-approved website at adwordsclicksclassaction.com.
Official Amazon _DKIM spotted
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