FYI
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Phil Chanda <phil.chanda@thekey.com>
Date: Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Subject: Re: Call Rail Forms
To: Emma Zumsen <emma.zumsen@thekey.com>
Cc: Lisa Fett <lisa.fett@thekey.com>
Hi Emma,
Thanks for looping me in on this issue. I have not been made aware, but
if Louise/Joey can give us the CallRail links, we can ask CalLRail to block
and investigate to look for a pattern. With the links, I can also look for
it on the server to see if there are any spikes or IP addresses that we can
block
We can also take a look to see if we can increase the bot challenge on our
host server. Montreal is on CloudCannon and HostDime
Thanks,
Phil
On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 5:17 PM Emma Zumsen <emma.zumsen@thekey.com> wrote:
> Phil,
>
> Not sure whether you've been looped into this. Not sure if there's
> something we can do with CallRail to filter these?
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Louise Scanlan <louise@20eight.ca>
> Date: Wed, Apr 23, 2025 at 1:49 PM
> Subject: Re: Call Rail Forms
> To: Joey Taylor <joey.taylor@thekey.com>
> Cc: Timothy Thomas <tt@thekey.com>, Emma Zumsen <emma.zumsen@thekey.com>,
> Cheryl Cartwright <ccartwright@thekey.com>
>
>
> Hello Joey,
> Thank you for bringing this to my attention. This type of spam was a major
> problem last year. The way we stopped it was to opt out of search partners
> on Google Ads. Now the problem has returned even though NONE of my
> campaigns opt into search partners, but it is exactly the same type of spam
> we had before.
>
> To the best of my knowledge, these are fraudsters that somehow hijack your
> google ads to show fake "employment opportunities" to unwitting people
> searching for jobs. Here is something I found on Chatgpt that might
> explain it better.
> *Bot Traffic Emulating GCLIDs*
>
> -
>
> *Some sophisticated bots scrape search ads, mimic real clicks, and
> generate fake GCLIDs — making it appear like valid Google Search traffic.*
> -
>
> *If they hit your site directly with a forged GCLID and gad_source, it
> can falsely count as real ad traffic.*
>
>
> And yes,unfortunately you are paying for these clicks. I will bring this
> up to Google immediately but just so you know last time they never admitted
> to any fraudulent activity despite the fact that Alexa and I tried for
> months to get them to refund us.
>
> I am supposed to have a meeting with Greg soon and will discuss this with
> him.
> Louise
>
>
>
> <https://twitter.com/20eightdigital>
> <https://www.facebook.com/20eightdigital/>
> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/10794610/admin/>
> <https://www.instagram.com/20eight_digital/?hl=en>
>
> 613.228.2028 | 20eight.ca | Louise@20eight.ca
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 23, 2025 at 11:54 AM Joey Taylor <joey.taylor@thekey.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Good Morning,
>>
>> For the past week or so, Montreal has been receiving some odd call rails
>> (about 10 of them). I believe they are all applicants as the phone numbers
>> are not local as well as most do not have messages about care. The thing I
>> noticed about all of them is that the "how did you hear about" category is
>> always tagged to Facebook or Newspaper. They all also have the following
>> link in the "referrer domain" category:
>> https://syndicatedsearch.goog/
>>
>> We are not entering these leads in SF as they are not valid leads. Can
>> you please let me know:
>> 1. Where are these leads coming from and how can we block them?
>> 2. Is this eating into the marketing budget by having these caregivers
>> click on the links?
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Joey Taylor
>>
>> *Directeur Général/**General Manager*
>>
>> 514-907-5065
>>
>> TheKey.ca <https://thekey.ca/>
>>
>> [image: TheKey]
>>
>