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Scams and Click Fraud

Now readers may be wondering what prevents them signing up for an advertising programme and clicking on the adverts themselves. In theory nothing at all and this idea hasn't escaped a number of scammers. Stories abound of armies of Indians and Chinese sitting in cybercafes busily clicking on adverts and paid a commission by unscrupulous webmasters. CTA programs monitor clicks. A series of accesses from the same computer over a short time frame to diverse ad programs would be sure to arouse suspicion. Some programmes bar access to users in China or India or those accessing the Web from certain proxy machines. Websites attracting unusually high click through rates or other activity may be investigated and barred. Some sites that have been booted out of Google's AdSense programme have complained bitterly about what the see as the arbitrary nature of such bans with little chance of appeal. Still the problem of fraudulent clicks is serious for advertisers. One user of Overture estimates that around 20% of their clicks are fraudulent - that is clicks from the same IP address or business that don't go beyond the entry page. Most programs allow specific addresses to be blocked but this is only a partial solution

Scams and Click Fraud

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