[BUG] Account has been wrongly permanently disabled (Framed Sites)

[Netlinkd]

My account was randomly permanently disabled: "Violations found: Valuable Inventory: Framed Sites", it is true that I have a page in my app with a WebView with an ad above it at the top (there's a lot of spacing between them) and the WebView always links to the same page which is basically a news page (that I own) to inform users about new features. I think what happened is that the system detected that I have links to external websites there where I let users know that they can follow me on Instagram and Facebook and it thinks that the websites load INSIDE the WebView, but I never load any other pages in the WebView, instead when a user clicks on the link it will launch an app to handle the link (in this case a browser app) so all the content on that page does not change and is entirely owned by me.

From the policy page it says: "Google AdMob and AdX in-app ads may be shown in an app next to a WebView so long as the Google Mobile Ads SDK is in use and the publisher is compliant with all other AdSense program policies."

So, what did I do wrong?

This is really a nasty bug from Google's side, I have not broken any rules, but they terminated my account without any warning.

I have also noticed that other apps that I do NOT own appeared on my AdMob account and I would get policy violation messages because of them. Could my ban be related to this bug or security problem from Google's side?

If someone from Google is reading this, could you please unban my account and fix the bugs. :)

These guys do not even bother to read the appeals.. I have been trying to reach out to them for a long time and still no response, nobody cares.

Thank you.

The emails that I got from them:

Hello,

 

This email is to alert you that your publisher account (Publisher Code: [I removed this]) was found to be non-compliant with the AdSense program policies and as a result, it has been disabled. Because of this, the ability to serve and monetize through all products which depend on AdSense will be disabled (for example, AdMob and YouTube).

We continually review all publishers according to our program policies. During a recent review of your account, our specialists found that it was not in compliance with the following policies:  

 

Violations found:

Valuable Inventory: Framed Sites:

As stated in our Program policies, we may not show Google ads on pages or apps with little or no value and/or excessive advertising to the user. This includes pages or apps that are mirroring or framing content from other sources without adding value. Please review Google’s Webmaster Quality Guidelines for more information.

For more information, please review the following resources:

• Policy tips for creating high quality sites (part 1)
• Policy tips for creating high quality sites (part 2)
• Webmaster quality guidelines
• AdSense program policies

As your account has been permanently disabled, we will withhold payment of your account balance, and where appropriate and possible, refund it to affected advertisers. 

Please note that this step was taken in an effort to maintain the quality of our networks and to protect the interests of our advertisers. Once you’ve made changes to your properties to correct the violation and believe that they fully comply with the program policies, you can notify us through our appeals form.

• AdSense Program Policies.
• AdMob Program Policies
• Ad Manager Program Policies

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

Sincerely,

The Publisher Policy Team


The appeal response:

Hello,

We've reviewed your appeal, and are unable to reinstate your account. Decisions on appeals are the result of careful investigation by our policy specialists and are final. Please also note that further participation in the AdSense program by publishers whose accounts have been disabled is prohibited.

For more information concerning disabled accounts, please see our FAQ in our help center: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/2660562?utm_source=crs&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=notificationhl=en&answer=113059&topic=30288

We appreciate your understanding,

The Google AdSense Team

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

Thank you for bringing this issue with needing quality content to be in your app following the standards of Adsense policy in order to be allowed to monetize your app with AdMob up to us. Unfortunately, this forum can only support integrating the Mobile Ads SDK into apps, and you are having a server side account policy violation issue. The correct forum for server side issues is the AdMob forum.

Regards,
Aryeh Baker
Mobile Ads SDK Team
 

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q22Xp9T:ref

[Netlinkd]

I don't think there is an issue with the quality of the content from my app, it is basically an utility app with good reviews (I can link you to it privately if you want to check it out), not a website, I have tried that forum and every other place to get in contact with them but never received a human response. Please let me know how to get in contact with them as there doesn't seem to be a way or is it because of the coronavirus nobody is working there anymore?

My post on that forum: https://support.google.com/admob/thread/58076567?hl=en

Thanks

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

I was just paraphrasing the statement of violation as stated:

As stated in our Program policies, we may not show Google ads on pages or apps with little or no value and/or excessive advertising to the user. This includes pages or apps that are mirroring or framing content from other sources without adding value.

Unfortunately, this forum cannot be of support for this issue as we only support integrating the Mobile Ads SDK into apps. I see that you have raised this issue before with us. I will raise what you said here with the rest of my team. If we have actionable information there will be a response on that thread there - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/google-admob-ads-sdk/netlinkd%7Csort:date/google-admob-ads-sdk/4tUS3dPj4lw/68PL_ZX9BAAJ.

[Netlinkd]

Yep, that violation does not make any sense in my case, my app does not display websites and I only had one small 320x50 banner (this can't be excessive advertising), so I have no idea what's going on, either there's a serious bug with the detection system or something else.

Thank you for your help and raising this issue with the rest of your team. If possible I can send you my phone number so I can discuss this problem with them in more detail? I can assure you that everything that I said is true and not made up.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

Unfortunately we only provide support through the forum.

[Netlinkd]

Hi Aryeh,

Could you at least please confirm that there are people still working in that department, reading these appeals, looking into this issue? Or am I waiting for nothing?

If Google is such a trustworthy company, it doesn't explain why it is acting so mysteriously, nobody can provide any info at all and nothing is transparent here. :)

Anyway, I just want to know what to do next.

Thanks

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

Unfortunately I cannot be of assistance regarding your issue. I will raise your concern that you have not been able to reach someone with your issue with the rest of my team. It's a possibility you will receive a response on your original thread here - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/google-admob-ads-sdk/netlinkd%7Csort:date/google-admob-ads-sdk/4tUS3dPj4lw/68PL_ZX9BAAJ. Please note that your issue is out of scope of this forum.

[Netlinkd]

Hi, I think I figured out why my account was terminated by mistake, it is because my app which caused the policy violation does not contain com.companyname.appname in the package name, instead it is just com.appname. I noticed that the same pattern happened in MoPub (they actually asked me for a screenshot of my Play Console admin page to prove that I own the app) and I also tried to submit my app to Amazon app store and they also auto-terminated my account and banned me for life (lol) right after I submitted it because they think that I do not own the app. So everybody is using the same shitty buggy automated system, lol (not sure if I should laugh or cry..).

I still haven't received any human response to my appeal, so I'm guessing nobody has bothered to read it or verify what I said (I explained that I own all the content and even provided proof).

Can you guys help me out? 3 weeks+ have passed already. Please contact them.

Thank you

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi there,

 

Thank you for updating us on your concern.

 

I'm afraid that we've exhausted every resource that we can provide to you on this concern at this point, given that this is out of scope for our level of assistance on this forum. Do kindly note that we do not have any contact with the support groups handling other aspects (such as appeals) as well, so please understand this is as far as we can go with assisting you on this. If it helps, creating a new AdMob account may perhaps be a far more useful approach at this point than waiting on appeals for your currently disabled account.

 

Regards,

Ziv Yves Sanchez

[Netlinkd]

Hi, I've been directed back to this forum by people who work at Google (I've told them that the AdMob support team is not responding).

I've tried to appeal again after 30 days from my initial ban as you suggested but I got the exact same automated response back that the decision is final. I've explained everything clearly and provided a lot of clear proof that I own ALL the content.

"Hello,

We've reviewed your appeal, and are unable to reinstate your account. Decisions on appeals are the result of careful investigation by our policy specialists and are final.  Please also note that further participation in the AdSense program by publishers whose accounts have been disabled is prohibited."

Even though you don't have any contact with the support groups, please understand that this is serious problem and the automated system prevents me from contacting anybody and explain anything, and I didn't even do anything wrong! Please talk to your manager, I'm sure there is a way to contact that team about this and please don't suggest that I should create a new AdMob account as that is against your own terms and will get me banned (this time it would be for a reason)!

Thank you

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Netlinkd,

Thank you for responding back with your concerns regarding this issue. As previously stated we have exhausted everything we can on our side. And have nothing else that we can do here. As such I will be bringing this to my team to see if anyone can think of anything that can be done to help you regarding this.

Regards,
William Pescherine

[Netlinkd]

Hi William,

Thanks again for all your help! I've just noticed something on the AdSense support - Contact us page. I get an Email button as my account was making more than 25$ a week but when I click it I get this error: "Something went wrong. Please try again."

I remember I tried this before on the AdSense page when my account was disabled and I remember seeing the same error but I just thought that there really was an error on that page and that maybe it will work later. So I used the AdMob Email button instead and that worked and it still works now, but they always reply back with a generic email that my AdSense account was disabled and that I need to appeal and fix that.

This would explain why nobody has read my appeals, I am basically banned from everything that has to do with AdSense, my AdMob account is probably fine and has no policy violations. But since my AdSense account has been banned then AdMob which depends on it (or is just connected to it) will not work anymore.

I still have no idea why my AdSense account was disabled in the first place since I've never used it.

[Netlinkd]

After more than 3 months, this issue is still not resolved, I have not been able to talk to anyone and figure out what happened.

Nobody cares, nobody wants to look into it and should I mention just how much money I've lost because of a stupid bug in the system that nobody even wants to check it out. What a great year.

[netl...@gmail.com]

After 4 months, AdMob contacts me saying that they're interested in working with me as they think my app will be successful. I talk to them and let them know that I've already had an AdMob account and it was banned for "Framed Sites". They escalated it with the Policy team and they told me that they disabled my account because I used Google Maps Android SDK and because my app has no additional value. I let them know of all the many additional features my app has but they told me they will not change their mind and they will not give me any other information. This is ridiculous, how can my app have no value at all? This is probably the silliest excuse I've ever heard in my life. This is my app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.locationchanger and web page explaining some features: https://www.netlinkd.com/locationchanger/

There are countless apps in the Play Store using Google Maps and AdMob just fine and I've tested many of them having less features than my app. It sounds like these guys saw a simple minimal interface (which users love) with all the features hidden under the menus and thought that it's just an app with Google Maps and nothing else. But I only use Google Maps so the users can easily select their location, it's not even the main feature of the app.

Do you guys know if there are any such restrictions in using Google Maps Android SDK (which I know we can use for free without any limits) with Google AdMob? It's not like I've used third party content without their consent.

Thanks