The Great Click 'N' Fraud Swindle

A variety of scams, fraudsters, and software tools could contribute to as much as a billion dollars of fake click activity each year. Worse, the Googles and Yahoos of the world may not care as much about fraudulent click activity, a BusinessWeek ClickTracks introduced software to help clients tell whether advertising clicks for their sites are simply problem campaigns that need to be tweaked, or if activity is more likely due to click fraud. The lack of transparency from the search engines proved itself during a conversation I had with a ClickTracks spokesperson, who declined to even estimate how much click fraud could be taking place in the marketplace. All that industry insiders and observers can do is guess at a figure, and some sources claim that to be as high as 20 percent, or even more, of the click activity going on today. Click fraud will be an issue for the two new players in contextual advertising. Amazon has been testing an ad network in controls with some third-party publishers. MSN debuts its adCenter services this summer, when its existing contract with Yahoo's Overture ends in June. document.write("Email murdok here.") Drag this to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") | Yahoo! My Web David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.