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Click
Fraud
Click Fraud online
Click fraud is an
Internet scam that causes the loss of
millions of advertising dollars every year. Click fraud happens when
advertisers pay site owners a value based on how many people click on
the link located
on the owner’s site. Then unscrupulous site owners generate
more money for
themselves by clicking the link repeatedly or by using a program that
simulates
link clicking. These false leads are usually fairly easy to detect,
especially
when you can see that a large amount of clicks are coming from the same
location. Many sites owners offer to disregard any charges that look
suspicious
in order to balance out any fraudulent clicks.
Three lawsuits have been filed against large web companies i.e. Google
and
Yahoo for such behavior. In these particular situations, the large
companies
acted as both the host site and the advertiser. Claims were made by two
companies attempting to advertise with Google that it was paying for
fraudulent
clicks. In the case against Yahoo, plaintiffs alleged that Yahoo
didn’t do
enough to prevent click fraud and was therefore liable for the cost to
their
company. All three cases were settled out of court for tens of millions
of
dollars.
Several programs have been created that are able to detect click fraud
and
legitimate hosts use them as part of their battle against this type of
scam.
None of these programs work in every case but do their best to keep the
numbers
down.
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