WOW - I DID NOT KNOW THIS COULD HAPPEN!!!!

now that you mention, one of my niche sites was making a consistent $900/mo from adsense, which has dropped to $700. a 200 drop, though significant in percentage terms, i guess didn't raise the flag high enough for me. i let it go and it has been a few months now and it is still in the 700 range. i will definitely look into this.

thank you so much for bringing this up! any idea how it could have been and what can be done to prevent it?

now that you mention, one of my niche sites was making a consistent $900/mo from adsense, which has dropped to $700. a 200 drop, though significant in percentage terms, i guess didn't raise the flag high enough for me. i let it go and it has been a few months now and it is still in the 700 range. i will definitely look into this.

thank you so much for bringing this up! any idea how it could have been and what can be done to prevent it?

Also, check your server file permissions.  That is the most likely way to get hacked with WP.

Aloysa, you can't get someone's bank info by just having their publisher ID.

This may be related.

The most recent WordPress upgrade solves a security issue:

This maintenance release fixes a moderate security issue that could allow a malicious Author-level user to gain further access to the site, addresses a handful of bugs, and provides some additional security updates.

So if you suspect a user did this, and you haven't updated to 3.0.2. (if you use wordpress), then that's probably the case, they probably gained access through the security breach before the update was released.

Hope this helps. Max

Kris, I posted this in your blog, but I think this might be useful to others here as well...

 

Did you recently upgrade your WP plugins?  Adsense related plugins come with the authors pub id by default.  What might've happened is (if you did upgrade), the adsense plugins overwrote your pub-id with the plugin authors' id.   Might just be a bug or something the author overlooked.

Did you recently upgrade your WP plugins?  Adsense related plugins come with the authors pub id by default.  What might've happened is (if you did upgrade), the adsense plugins overwrote your pub-id with the plugin authors' id.   Might just be a bug or something the author overlooked.

Anyway, hopefully this is the end of my issues.  Thanks so much everyone.

Kris

Please also run a malware scan on your PC: http://www.malwarebytes.org/ is one tool you can use.

If they're grabbing the passwords from some trojan then changing it won't help. Also run an anti-virus scan if you don't have.

Finally, if you still use IE chuck it in the recycle bin, because it is full of security holes. Firefox and Chrome are better, here.

I've been hacked once and I had someone impersonate me and basically ruin my username, so I feel somewhat strongly about this stuff.

So, if you ever notice your impressions are low on Adsense, make sure you check the pub-id on your adsense ads.

I really appreciate all the feedback people have provided.  The Yakezie is great! 

If you find that unauthorized ad code has been placed on your site, we first recommend that you take the following steps:

• Contact your web host or webmaster to inquire about the ads.
• Contact your service provider and check your web logs to see if anyone has accessed your HTML source without your permission.

If you confirm that the AdSense ad code has been placed on your site
without permission, please fill out the form below. We will perform an
investigation using the information that you've provided. Once you've
submitted the form and received a confirmation email, you're welcome to
remove the unauthorized ad code from your site.

Sorry for the incorrect link before; I think THAT one is the one you need. ;)