Click Fraud Case Study – Clickbot.ANo one knows quite how much click fraud is costing advertisers each year, but the amount is obviously significant. It is also clear that the methods and techniques used to commit click fraud are changing and becoming more sophisticated as time goes on. The advertising industry needs to be vigilant, and to adapt when necessary to fight the fraudsters. Low level click fraud is not hard to spot, because it almost always comes from just one computer. It becomes much harder to identify if many computers are being controlled by the same person. Clickbot.A Clickbot.A is a piece of malicious software that could infect your computer. Once your computer is compromised, the software will then click on adverts. Clickbot.A was written as a plug in for Internet Explorer, and people would download it, unaware of the bad intentions of the fraudster. At one point over a hundred thousand computers were infected by this malware. A large group of computers that have been infected in this manner is referred to as a botnet, and it allows the “owner” of the botnet to use these computers as he sees fit. You can see for yourself how this tool could be used to profit the fraudster. He could get 100,000 computers clicking on the adverts on his site, and if you have any experience with PPC, then you'll know that can add up to a fortune very quickly indeed. He could also sell the services of his botnet to any other immoral advertising publisher, and give them many clicks on the adverts on their site. Unlike the very low level fraud of an advertising publisher using his own computer to click on his own adverts, the owner of a botnet uses many different computers, making it much harder for the advertising network to realise that illegal activity is going on. Once click fraud has been detected, the botnet also makes it harder for the advertising network to identify the fraudster – the owners of the computers involved have no knowledge of the fraudulent activity that their computers have been used for. Fortunately, this tool was picked up on at a very early stage, while it was still dealing in click fraud at a very low level, so the problem was not as large as it may well have become. What Can We Learn From This? Clickbot.A is an example of the criminals making more intelligent attempts to defraud the system. It was caught early, but there are known to be many botnets in existence on the internet, some of them comprising thousands or even millions of computers. Any of these botnets could be used for click fraud, which is why we as advertisers have to stay as vigilant as we can. The criminals are working hard to profit, so we need to work hard to stop them. PPC tracking with effective click fraud protection is a vital tool in your fight against the criminals. If you don't make use of it, you may well be exploited. |
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| AdWatcher | 9.3 |
| HitsLink | 6.4 |
| HyperTracker | 6.4 |
| WhosClickingWho | 6.4 |
| DynaTracker | 6.2 |
| ConversionRuler | 6.3 |
| AdTrackz | 5.9 |
| AdMinder | 5.1 |
| ROIWiz | 5 |
| ClickAlyzer | 1.6 |
| ProAnalyzer | 0 |
