This post is a follow up to my last post about a method of using adwords in email spam.

Who gets charge ?

Using an adhoc testing method I sent a adwords link to several people and ask them to follow it. I created the links so they did not land on the destination pages that the advertiser ( me in this case ) had originally intended. All the users ( including GrayWolf thanks ) reported being taken to the new destination I set.

After waiting several days there was only one charge to my account. This has me believe that there is some filtering for these paid links and PPC fraud using this technique is being prevented. That made me quite happy.

Conclusion

Email spammers are using the google system in interesting ways to avoid spam filters and take advantage inthe trust the public has in the Google domain name. If google doesn’t start limiting the number of ways that you can “hack” a 302 out of them they will suffer an erosion of trust. Think of the impact on google when I have to tell my mom to never click a link with the google domain in it.

Filed under: Web Technologies — Scott @ December 14, 2006 1:15 am

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