Don't Risk Your Adsense Account

Click attacks can cost you your Adsense account. That's what Brian Thibault found out when he discovered that he'd been banned from Adsense after an unexplained spike in traffic (and clicks on his Adsense links, presumably) to one of his websites. From his own description of events, it doesn't sound like he handled his appeal very well, but regardless, the point is that Google can, and sometimes will, close your Adsense account if they find anything going on with your account that they consider suspicious.

And based on Brian's case, it doesn't necessarily require that you're the one doing anything wrong.

This is something that should be of concern to everybody with an Adsense account, but I think it could be an issue in particular with people who are involved in any sort of incentivized traffic. Whether it's traffic exchanges, or purchased traffic, webmasters need to keep in mind that a sudden spike in traffic could result in a spike in clicks. Particularly if your visitors think clicking your Adsense links is likely to benefit them -- either through a sort of "you scratch my back" mentality with traffic exchanges, or because of their belief that if they click your Adsense, you'll buy more ads from PTR sites.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Google is not looking favourably on incentivized traffic at sites with Adsense ads.