Click Fraud

 Click Fraud

If you use AdWords or AdSense, you must have heard of an emerging practice in the computer underworld called "click fraud". But what exactly is click fraud and how is it carried out?

Well, AdSense uses a payment mechanism that gives a certain amount of money to the publisher (someone who has an AdSense banner on their page) each time the person clicks on said banner. Click fraud is therefore an attempt to trick people into clicking on advertisements just so that they can earn more revenue.

Some people create sites for the sole purpose of fraudulently generating revenue through Google's AdSense program. These users achieve an incredible number of clicks through a multitude of methods, some complex and complex and others primitive and simple.

One of the most complex is the use of so-called "Hitbots". These are automated programs that simulate clicking on links in AdSense banners (some programs also click on banners).

Google's AdSense protection system is by no means perfect and almost anyone can find details of circumventing the protection mechanism, ironically by simply doing a Google search.

Another, more primitive way is to hire 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 and just click on links so you can strike it rich. They come from very poor countries like India, and they're willing to do it for just $0.50 an hour.

Of course, there is a problem with this mechanism. Once Google receives a large number of clicks from a single address, the address and the site containing the AdSense banner will be blocked, and illegal behavior may lead to prosecution against the fraudster.

To prevent this from happening, many people use a large number of proxy servers for the purpose of clicking. They are basically Trojans, found on computers all over the world (although most of them are in the United States). What's even harder is that these clicks will appear to come from a real computer, so these scams are hard to spot.

And don't think that this only happens in isolated cases. There are a lot of illegal activities in this area.

In fact, there's so much that if search engine companies don't increase their security with programs like AdSense, this criminal behavior could become even more dangerous.

Google has a very strict policy on click fraud and has prosecuted those who used such methods in the past. But while the search engine giant is doing its best to reduce the risk of fraudulent clicks, there's certainly room for a lot of improvement.

It's estimated that more than 20% of clicks that follow an AdSense link are simply to get money from the person paying for the ad. Some people think that the number of fraudulent clicks can be doubled.

There are many schemes that involve click fraud, such as groups of AdSense publishers clicking each other's links (known as "click loops"), or spamming them to click those links.

Although Google still has click fraud on a leash, this phenomenon certainly raises concerns for AdWords advertisers, but despite this advertising with Google AdSense is still more profitable for the advertiser, unlike traditional non-targeted advertising schemes.

There are certain safeguards against such schemes and all advertisers should be aware enough to use them. Many advertisers choose to avoid the content network altogether for fear of click fraud.

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