Fake Google Adsense Reports and How to Detect Them?

If you visit earnings forums, such as the DigitalPoint, you may find that several people post reports of their earnings on Google Adsense or other such ad networks. Several of these reports (screenshots) are faked for the purpose of generating more interest in their blogs or their profiles. Let's analyze this twisted psychology in this post.

In some forum threads, you may find that a guy posts a screenshot of Adsense, such as this one below, with far greater earnings than they have ever got (click to enlarge screenshot).

One reason to do this is to show off to other people in the forum that he is a master of Adsense and it is worth their while to check out his blog/website. With this sham, they can also attract more advertisers to the blog and command higher ad rates. Another reason can be his petty ego toward people earning more than him. Whatever it is, he can be successful in tricking quite a lot of the forum users, who respond with kudos in the thread.

How to Fake a Screenshot?

One way to fake screenshot is using this web service: Googleadsensegenerator.com. This is a service that helps you generate faked Google Adsense screenshots. You only have to submit what amount you want to show (today's and yesterday's earnings), and the screenshot will be ready, without revealing any important information, such as your CTR, impressions, or eCPM. Do you know that it is against Adsense terms to show these data?

Another way to generate screenshot is like this:

1. Go to your Adsense reports page, and save that file on your HDD.

2. Now, go to the file's HTML source code, and edit the values that represent your earnings and other data.

3. Save the page and open it again in your browser. You will see updated data in it.

4. Take a screenshot of it.

How to Spot a Faked Screenshot?

Though these techniques work with many people, you can readily see if a screenshot is faked or not by looking closely at it. If you are using the GoogleAdsensegenerator.com script, all screenshots look alike. They always show the yesterday's earnings, with the hazy shade over the important attributes.

If the poster of the screenshot is really lazy, he may not have changed the name of the image, which is 'adsenseking.png'. You see, it is so easy to spot.

On the other hand, if you are seeing a screenshot generated with the second method, here are some ways to spot if it is real.

1. Many people forget about the other parts of the data, such as Referrals, Adsense for feeds, Search, and Mobile content. A successful Adsense publisher usually has a great number of RSS readers, and hence a substantial part of that money has been generated from RSS impressions. He also gets a great amount of money from daily searches, as he most probably has installed Adsense search boxes on his site. In faked screenshots, the data under both these attributes are likely to be nil.

2. Another way to spot is looking closely at the impressions, clicks, and eCPM data, which may be blacked out. Looking at the width of these numbers, you can pretty much say if the screenshot has got any anomalies. A smaller width for the blacked out region suggests a smaller number of clicks or data, which may not correspond to the earnings.

Conclusion

Whatever the reason, try not to fake your earnings on Adsense or any other networks. Also, don't be an idiot and throw attaboys at anyone that tries to cheat.