Re: False Clicks/Click Fraud

From: Keith Hickman <khickman_at_awsp.com>
Date: Thu 17 Aug 2006 14:52:42 -0500

Brad Jensen Wrote:

>"I do hope you are kidding.
>Every business is based on trust, and the last thing that
>would help Google's bottom line is click fraud. They aren't in
>business for one week, or one quarter."

Brad, I think you must be kidding. Ever here of Enron? It collapsed
due to corporate fraud. This was Americas 7th largest company.
Since initiating the Enron investigation on December 4, 2001, the FBI
has opened more than 50 major corporate fraud investigations, including
WorldCom, K-mart, America Online, Qwest Communications, Tyco
International, Homestores.com, Rite-Aid, and Bristol - Meyers Squibb.

Trust? I think your being a little naive here.

Corporate America is wrought with fraud/corruption and they operate
behind a facade of righteousness. Ultimately, All that matters is the
bottom line and the stockholders/stock prices.

>"Stop and think of this idea of armies of faceless gnomes
>falsely clicking ads and even filling out conversion forms!"

Spam bots do this thousands, maybe millions of time a day. They fill out
and submit all kinds of forms automatically. I am a web developer as
well and I know for a fact that this is possible and happening today.
We see it everyday and try to circumvent it. However, the
spammers/hackers always seem to find a work around because there is
money in it.

Furthermore, there is an army of zombie machines out there (with unique
IP addresses) that are controlled by hackers/spammers/ to use for
whatever purpose they please.

Security vendors say it takes as little as six to 15 seconds for a
software-driven attack to find and infect an unprotected PC connected to
the Internet. These are automated tools that scan IP address blocks.
They are relentless, never get tired, and work 24/7

>"So if my average click is worth a dollar, I hire one thousand
>people to click on one hundred different sites. Each of those
>thousand people earns one hundred dollars for me and I give
>them half. However, $50 isn't enough money for anybody in the
>USA to do this, so I have to hire one thousand people in , say
>China, to do it. But wait, Google would notice that all those
>clicks on all those sites that have my AdSense code are coming
>from the same thousand people, or are coming from China, and
>they would filter them out, revoke my AdSense PID, and there
>would be no click fraud. Meanwhile I have to sign up a
>thousand people, pay a thousand people, and hope not one of
>them turns me in to Google or the FBI."

We have visited with potential clients that sit there an tell us that
they click on their competitors ads several times a day on a daily
basis. The aforementioned customer (mid-sized company, 100 + people)
was clicking on a competitors ad which cost them over 50.00 per click.
That adds up to some serious money over time.
There's all kinds of motivation for fraud.

Keith Hickman
Director, Marketing & Web Development
Advanced Web Site Publishing
http://www.awsp.com/
Phone: 281-554-9557
Fax: 281-554-9558
Cell: 713-724-7483
Toll Free: 1-866-900-AWSP (2977)





Received on Thu Aug 17 2006 - 14:52:42 CDT