Hell yeah!
It's Haram, Yes, You're reading it correctly.
Well, grab some coffee before we dig in, as things are going to get really flashy from here on.
Well, grab some coffee before we dig in, as things are going to get really flashy from here on.
Don't let it slip from your brain that advertisers pay Google to advertise their stuff based on "per thousand views," "clicks," or both (per thousand views and clicks) at the same time.
What people are doing is that they've started using premium proxies (usually socks5) to pose as original visitors from a certain location (the location depends on the IP of the proxy they're using), and they click on ads from advertisers (that means advertisers are paying them a certain amount of money based on every single click).
After clicking on their ads, the funds will automatically be deducted from the advertiser's account and reach the publisher's account (after Google cuts its own share in it), but for the advertiser, that click is just a waste of his or her money and nothing else because the thing that advertiser wanted from that click just never happened and will never happen again if this thing is taken to a whole other level.
In fact, all the revenue made by such heinous actions comes at a great loss to the advertiser(s).
Suppose you're an advertiser and you want to promote your stuff, and you're paying $5 per click. On the other hand, there are tons of publishers who are clicking on your ads (not to provide you any good, but for their own sake of making money), and in 1 day you got 1000 clicks on your ad, which means in just 1 day you've lost $5000.
So, I've got some good questions for you.
Q # 1: Isn't this a scam with you? (because all you got was nothing but a great loss of $5000 in one day.)
Q #2: Will you ever use Google Ads again? (A straight no.)
Q #3: Don't you think clickers (publishers) don't know that they are making money by giving you a great loss? (Hell Yeah, Everyone out there knows about it, but they still harm you financially with their strong greed's intention.)