Your organization has been locked

I noticed today that our app, which is in the midst of a marketing campaign, was not displaying ads on any of our platforms (we have a rewarded ad icon that shows as "available" when ads are available, and this was grayed out).

I logged into the Unity dashboard to check our ad revenue for the day, and I found an entirely vague message: "Your organization has been locked. Your organization appears to have exhibited behavior that violates Unity's Terms of Service. If this is a mistake please contact unityads-support@unity3d.com."

Frustrated, as I have no idea what this violation might be, nor was I granted the opportunity to explain myself to Unity about their "mistake" they have already admitted they might have made, nor did Unity reach out to let me know that we might be in violation, I reached out 4 hours ago and have yet to hear back.

When I reached out to customer service, which does have a chat window, they told me that Unity Ads is its own team and cannot be reached directly. I decided at last that maybe if I tried the forums someone might hear me before I sit and wait for an email 72 hours from now while in the middle of a marketing campaign that is acquiring users at this instant.

Can anyone from Unity please reach out and let me know when I can expect to hear back? Am I to be compensated for lost revenue given I cannot determine a reason why this is not "a mistake," as you call it?

And if you aren't certain whether you've made a mistake do you think that perhaps shutting down a company's business model is a wise maneuver? Maybe you should revisit this policy. I am quite sure you wouldn't want to end up in a legal battle over lost revenue in the event you made a "mistake."

I see blatant violations of ad policy and fraudulent advertising daily in the app and game community. We have never sunk to this level, and operate with integrity at all times. Yet here we are. Unity, please respond ASAP.

Thank you,
Mike

 

This is the response I received from Unity Ads:

"Thank you for reaching out. Unfortunately, you have been found in violation of our Monetization Terms of Service agreement by generating revenue through Invalid Activity.

Specifically, our fraud monitoring system has detected abnormal timings in ad surfacing or ad engagement within your game, which is often a sign of fraudulent activity.

Since you mentioned your app was undergoing a user acquisition campaign, I will ask our Fraud team to take another look at the data for your game."

This seems entirely unreasonable to me: does any time a game receives a surge in ad revenue due to an acquisition campaign trigger fraud detection? Our ad frequency is relatively on the low side in our game, and we do not use any of the sleazy tactics I have seen in many other games.

The entire purpose of this acquisition campaign was to determine the value of a user to us prior to running larger campaigns. Now my main concern is if I do run a large-scale campaign, Unity Ads will pick this up as "fraudulent." Can anyone opine on this?

 

Hi unity_BUIlockkbCwDQ9w, I'm having the very same messages and issues. Did you ever get your account unlocked? Any reply from UnityAds?

 

I’ll start you with the conclusion: switch to AdMob now and save yourself the heartache.

Unity has some moronic algorithm that will flag you any time there is an unusual spike in downloads. This combined with no mediation option means you are monetizing lower and getting worse service. AdMob has its quirks but Unity Ads is garbage. Throw them in a mediation stack and watch them get outbid by everyone else. If Unity is listening, don’t take offense—take the feedback and fix your system.

 

Ridiculous that nobody from Unity has responded here, and it sounds like they just don't care anymore.
Looks like I'll be implementing another networks ads.

 

Hi pandolfini, Thank you for getting back to me. I'm looking into AdMobs which worked fine with Android but had issues using it with Xcode and installing cocapods. Then there's AdColony and a few other Ads providers, so it's food thought, so thank you for pointing me in a direction.

UnityAds unlocked my account, so for temporary ease I'm continuing with it. But I'm already back to not having my questions answered. my eCPM is set at $0, which might be normal, just need to know.

Then as they removed all earnings, they removed more than I had been earned, so I have a negative balance.

Thanks again

Charles

 

Hi Meltdown

In Unity's defence they've unlocked my account, they've left me with a negative balance by taking more than earned but I'm hoping that's easily fixed.

 

You are not alone, brother... A few days ago, we also received an organization blocked. We are waiting for an explanation of the reason for the lock... or we'll have to say goodbye to the Unity Ads.

 

The organization was unlocked. It was my fault. I didn't track the child's activity. Thanks UnityAds.

 

I have google play console and i used to publish most of app on this platform, some of people try to invalid clicks or downloads in my apps and i got locked from unity ads. I trust this ad network and like this platform interface and ad earning.

If my account doesn't re-enable, i also return on admob.

 

Did They Unlock Your Account Automatically ?

 

My Account Also Locked And Until now its not unlocked , i'm also Making my Mind To switch to Admob or other Advertising Companies

 

This is really bothering me. For months I had an eCPM value of 0.04 $ and everything was just fine. Then my app got new users and the value went up. An article featured it and the app units went from 20 to over 1,730.

Unity thought it was the best timing to lock my ad-account. Sounds legit. Not.

Edit: After almost a day my account has been unlocked again. The stated reason was that I generated artificial clicks or installs.

The revenue of the fraudulent generated traffic was reset. It wasn't much to begin with but I am glad my account is back up and running.

 

Aaand "Your organization has been locked" again. I didn't know it was a weekly subscription.

AdMob it is.

 

I found myself with the same problem today, my projects were practically deactivated and I had not been generating revenue for almost 1 month, today I had this surprise, I am waiting for support to clarify this, how can a stopped account be disabled by fraud? it is precisely this month that the payment would be a "higher" amount.

Unity is a great alternative to the other networks, but as I saw other responses above, many people suffer from these unexpected penalties.

I am calm that I did not violate anything and I hope for a solution.

Thank you,
A.M

 

+1
Got locked on December 1st 2020. On my request Unity Ads team started investigating my issue the same day.
Will keep you guys updated.

 

This sucks! I really lost my account after that support "reviewing" my account. Currently I don’t even have active apps due to COVID-19, we stopped everything and disabled everything, they informed me that I violated copyrights, nor will I try to argue any more because it looks like a lost fight, sometimes admob is boring but it still seems the most suitable for me, I hope you can recover your profits, because I was lost 2 months down the drain.

 

UPDATE
Unity Ads unlocked my organization on December 2nd. Ads weren't working for ~1.5 days. So that was pretty quick.
They said that the fraud team detected "Invalid Activity" but decided to "reconcile the account".
No concrete details were provided. In short - "No one associated with the publisher should click an ad".
So these are my next steps:
- ask all non-tester players I know to uninstall the game (easier than asking for advertisement ids )
- implement AdMob (with ability to switch ad network without redeploy)

 

When you see this mail....i have same problem

 

My organisation has been locked.. What should i do now?

 

To reiterate, switch to AdMob. Unity's rep himself recommended I do it. It is a Pareto dominant option: you get mediation and none of this amateurish nonsense with Unity Ads.

 

Hi,
I am stucked with the same problem, may you help me.
You have unlocked it. I want to know that is there any deductions in your total revenue.
Please reply me at dev2000rajsharma@gmail.com
I am waiting for your response..
Please help.

 

My Organization is locked
help out me

 

My Organization is locked .please help me

 

The third time that my organization is locked... The system that checks the fraud sucks!
I don't have time to claim every two months!
Changing to Admob!!

 

To save you guys from some headache, please take the advice from other posts and look into Ad mediation. There are many options out there. Ones I would recommend are either ironSource or AdMob. ironSource SDK is easier to integrate than AdMob SDK.

You will be able to serve ads from multiple platforms that bid against each other for the highest eCPM. You will earn more and also reduce the risk that some policy violation or auto flagging on your account ruins your revenue.

Protect yourself and earn more!

 

Hello,

I just released a game and it got flagged for this same issue, however I didn’t find out about it until after contacting ad support. The game is currently featured on the front page of the App Store in a few countries, and I’m incredibly disappointed that ads aren’t working. I use Unity Ads in my other games but this is the first hiccup and it came at the worst possible time. I’ve submitted the appeal form (#1039575) and am eagerly awaiting a response.

Thanks,
Nick

 

Awesome! Thank you so much.

If anyone else runs into this issue, I recommend filling out the form linked above. It took about 1.5 days for a response but I imagine that time could be longer or shorter based on the queue.

Thanks,
Nick

 

My organisation has been locked..
Are you blocking people's accounts when you start earning $ 3 5? Isn't it part of this scam you did?