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January 12, 2009
Rounding Up the Usual Click Fraud Suspects
In a new report by entitled "Anatomy of a Fraudster," Anchor Intelligence has identified the top four types of click fraud perpetrators. Their research is based on a year of studying traffic patterns and gathering intelligence across their client base.
The four types are:
- Click fraud farmers – members of click farms, which are outsourced by an organization and paid to generate clicks on behalf of a third party.
- Pyramid schemers – individuals who are caught up in illegal schemes, in which they are “paid” to click on ads, visit Web sites and recruit other users.
- Money launderers – fraudsters who recruit consumers to use their personal information to register various websites with ad networks with intent to generate false clicks on ads hosted by their Web sites.
- Kit sophisticates – fraudsters who purchase kits online to commit fraud. These kits often serve as a one-stop shop for click fraud perpetrators and provide tools to create hundreds of Web sites, mass register accounts and generate thousands of fraudulent ad clicks.
“Pinpointing the bad guys can be extremely difficult,” said Ken Miller, CEO of Anchor Intelligence. “Much like spammers, click fraud perpetrators have their methods for staying under the radar. Understanding the ‘how' and ‘why' behind their actions is essential to preventing their fraudulent activity.”
What do you think about the four types of click fraud perpetrators? Let us know in the comments.
Related Reading:
Click Fraud Declines Slightly in Q2 2008
Q1 2008 Click Fraud Down from Last Quarter, Up from Last Year
New Yahoo Feature Reports Number of Discarded Clicks
Google Sued for Ad Fraud; Another Class Action Settlement?
Posted by Nathania Johnson on January 12, 2009 11:20 AM
Comments
Good review.
The more focus on fraudalent behaviour the more that ethical work will count online.
Paul Ingersole January 12, 2009 10:06 PM
Education on the issue of click fraud is key. Most people simply don't know enough about it. And if you're a retailer/merchant with online listings, it's in your best interest to seek out sites like www.sortprice.com that do not use a CPC/CPI pricing model, making click fraud irrelevant in your relationship with them.
Steve January 14, 2009 10:23 AM
Good review, in fact some people do not realize from the risk and the consequence of click fraud. Therefore, we have to use proper PPC Tracking Tools to prevent it. I am testing one of them recently. It's www.clickmeter.com is the online free service for monitoring clicks in real-time and prevent click fraud,indeed.
Marc March 9, 2009 10:03 AM
