Click Fraud
If you use AdWords or AdSense, you've probably heard about an emerging practice in the IT underworld called "click fraud". But what exactly is click fraud and how is it done?
Well, AdSense uses a payment mechanism that awards a certain amount of money to a publisher (someone who has an AdSense banner on their page) every time someone clicks on said banner. So click fraud is an attempt to get people to click on ads in order to get more revenue.
Some people create sites with the sole purpose of fraudulently generating revenue through Google's AdSense program. These users get an incredible number of clicks through many methods, some complex and sophisticated, others rudimentary and simple.
One of the most complex is the use of so-called "hitbots". These are automated programs that emulate the links in AdSense banners (there are some that actually click on the banners).
Google's AdSense protection system is far from perfect and almost anyone can find details of how to bypass the protection mechanism, ironically by doing a simple Google search.
Another, more rudimentary method is to engage a large number of people in a poor country to click on the links on your site. This means that these people will sit around all day clicking on links so you can make a fortune. They come from very poor countries like India and are willing to do it for only $0.50 an hour.
Of course, there is a problem with this mechanism. When Google receives a large number of clicks from a single address, the address and the site where the AdSense banner was located are banned, and the illegal behavior can even get the fraudster sued.
To prevent this from happening, many people use a large number of proxy servers for the purpose of clicking. These are essentially Trojans, located on computers all over the world (but mostly in the US). What's even more discouraging is that these clicks appear to come from a real computer, so these scams are very difficult to detect.
And don't think that this only happens in isolated cases. There is a lot of illegal activity in this area.
In fact, there is so much that if search engine companies don't beef up their security with programs like AdSense, this criminal behavior could become even more damaging.
Google has a very strict policy on click fraud, and has already prosecuted those who employ such techniques. But while the search engine giant is doing its best to minimize the risk of click fraud, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
It's estimated that more than 20 percent of the clicks that follow an AdSense link are made for the sole purpose of extracting money from the person paying for the ad. Some believe that the number of fraudulent clicks is even double that.
There are many other click fraud schemes, such as groups of AdSense publishers clicking on each other's links (so-called "click circles") or spamming to get people to click on those links.
While Google still keeps click fraud on a tight leash, the phenomenon certainly causes concern for advertisers on AdWords, but despite this, advertising with Google's AdSense is still more profitable for the advertiser, compared to traditional untargeted advertising schemes.
There are safeguards against such practices and all advertisers should be wise enough to use them. Many advertisers choose to avoid the content network altogether for fear of click fraud.
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