Google Charges 12-Yr.-Old Boy Over $100,000. For Adwords Account!

The Scarlet Pimp

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now this is funny, cuz it all worked out in the end. :D

12-year-old Gets €100,000. Google Bill After Confusing AdWords and AdSense

The kid had a plan: put up some music videos of his band on YouTube, plug into Google’s AdSense program to run ads alongside, make enough money to buy instruments, play music, get rich and go buy a mansion.

A great plan!

One little hitch: he got AdSense confused with AdWords.

From that little hitch came a big surprise: it's how the parents of José Javier, 12, from the Alicante town of Torrevieja, in Spain, wound up staring at a bill of €100,000 ($111,000 USD, £90,000 GBP) from Google, according to a report from the Spanish daily El País .

Google, fortunately, has written off the amount and let José off the hook. ( whew! :D )

The company's Spanish offices sent a statement to El País saying that after analyzing the case, and after not having received any money from José, it was canceling the outstanding AdWords balance.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/20...gle-bill-after-confusing-adwords-and-adsense/
 
Well, I've seen many times people mixing Adwords and Adsense in these and other forums, using one when they meant the other or using interchangeably. As an account manager, that irks me. It also leads to confusion as to what is meant such as the question "how can I improve my CPC". As a PPC guy, I assume they are talking about Adwords but more than once I answer or find out later they meant Adsense and wanted to get a higher payout. In these cases, although irksome, it leads only to wasted time and confusion.

In this case, confusing the two had major financial ramifications. He's darn lucky Google forgave him. It surely would not have happened if he wasn't 12 years old. Just goes to show you, understand what you're getting into before jumping into something.
 
What I want to know is how in the hell Google lets ANYONE rack up a $100,000 advertising bill in the first place, most of all a 12 year old kid!
 
So that's why some google revenue payments gets blocked. They just return money to little boys.
 
Well ,they must handle it differently in Spain I guess... Must have been a glitch on their end as most for brand new accounts is usually a couple of hundred $, as they charge that amount and if it fails campaigns are paused.
 
the kid must've been getting serious traffic to accrue that much so quickly. perhaps he should start his own seo company! :D

i wonder if google will now ban him for life, as they like to do...
 
What I want to know is how in the hell Google lets ANYONE rack up a $100,000 advertising bill in the first place, most of all a 12 year old kid!

A good question. I am under the impression you need to be 18 years old to open an Adsense or Adwords account. But I'm sure you could easily get around that or that it's not very strictly enforced. As long as you provide a valid credit card belonging to an adult. Which begs the question, how did he get this CC? Did he steal it from his parents? Did they just say "go ahead and use it" without doing their due diligence themselves? Maybe the parents are just as much to blame in this.
 
A good question. I am under the impression you need to be 18 years old to open an Adsense or Adwords account. But I'm sure you could easily get around that or that it's not very strictly enforced. As long as you provide a valid credit card belonging to an adult. Which begs the question, how did he get this CC? Did he steal it from his parents? Did they just say "go ahead and use it" without doing their due diligence themselves? Maybe the parents are just as much to blame in this.
Whether they gave their permission or not hardly matters I think. Even if he used his dad's CC, passport, SSN, and everything you can possibly imagine - even a person like his dad could never spend $100k the way he did!

The only thing I can possibly imagine is that his dad had a corporate platinum card for a major company of some kind?
 
It's his intention. Now his youtube channel has over 100.000 subscribers. The kid must laugh all the way to the bank.
 
It's his intention. Now his youtube channel has over 100.000 subscribers. The kid must laugh all the way to the bank.

Exactly. Not a bad marketing strategy. I remember years ago a returning TV show in Australia hired some new marketers. They would normally spend tens of thousands of dollars. Instead they spent 500 usd on a poster bill board outside the Afghanistan us army base... A huge bill board advertising an Australian TV show with the actors, channel, day and time the show will be coming out. EVERY news in the world covered the story. It was the biggest story of the week for them. Kudos smart marketers kudos.
 
I have some questions:

If I open an Adwords account, I have to start a campaign for being charged, not?
If you start a campaign you have to set a budget limit, not?
I have read that the charge bank account was the one for the boy. And the charges were progressive, not only one 100k charges. why the bank accepted foreign charges to a 12 years old account?
Why is so hard to open and being approved to Adsense and so easy to open and being approved to to Adwords? (The other day I was about to click on a button that will connect my YouTube channel to an Adwords account, look for me that I read it twice)
 
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