AdSense termination emails feel random to the recipient and obvious to the reviewer. The policy document is long; the actual ban patterns are short. Five behaviors account for the overwhelming majority of lost accounts — and every one is avoidable by anyone who knows the list.

1. Invalid traffic and clicks

Clicking your own ads "just to test" is the classic, and it's a ban even when the intent was innocent — the system doesn't read intentions, it reads patterns. Buying traffic, click exchanges, and asking friends also land here. One legitimate use of the preview tools exists precisely because self-clicking is forbidden. If you must see how ads look, use the official preview/diagnostic tools, never the live units.

2. Placement deception

Ads dressed as content: download buttons, fake "play" triangles, units adjacent to navigation, ads that look like the next pagination arrow. This is where the "accidental clicks" economy lives — and those clicks get refunded, the placement gets flagged, and repeat flags end accounts. The line is simple: would a hurried reader know it's an ad? If not, fix it before the reviewer does.

3. Content the ads can't sit on

Adult material, copyright-infringing downloads, weapons, drugs, hateful content, and — the most common accidental one — scraped or republished content without rights. Copyright complaints arrive quietly and compound; three strikes of valid DMCA notices is a different sport entirely from a policy review.

4. The site doesn't match the account

Running ads on domains not listed in the account, or on pages substantially different from what was approved. New sites get added to the account — that's a form, not a loophole.

5. Encouraging engagement

"Support us by clicking the ads" — including in videos, podcasts or newsletters. Even without payment for clicks, the solicitation itself is a violation.

The meta-lesson: reviewers and systems read patterns, not excuses. Accounts that survive are the ones where every ad is obviously an ad, every visitor is real, and every page is yours to monetize. Boring, and permanent.