The overall click fraud rate in Q4 2010 was 19.1 percent which was lower than the Q3 2010 all-time high of 22.3 percent, but higher than the 15.3 percent rate for Q4 2009, according to the latest report from Click Forensics.

Click Forensics Malware Lab identified a new malware scheme targeting display banner ads. The program performs a pop-up or pop-under and rotates brand advertisers’ banner ads every 10-15 min in an effort to boost impression figures.

In the first quarter of 2010 the average attempted click fraud rate increased from 25.7 percent in Q4 2009 to 29. 2 percent in Q1 2010, representing a 34 percent year-over-year increase from Q1 2009, according to a new report from Anchor Intelligence.

Anchor Intelligence told WebProNews the record attempted click fraud rate can be attributed to dramatic growth in botnet scale and volume around the globe.

The average attempted click fraud rate increased from 18.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009, to 25.7 percent in the fourth quarter according to a new report from Anchor Intelligence.

The jump in the attempted click fraud rate in Q4 was due to more activity by click fraudsters looking to take advantage of the increase in holiday ad spend online. The spread of botnets, which are used for automating traffic and coordinating click fraud activity, spiked late in the quarter.

Perpetrators of click fraud are getting sneakier and sneakier. Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman has uncovered one of the more diabolical click fraud schemes known to be hatched. As he summarizes it:

There was a significant jump in click fraud traffic from botnets in the third quarter of 2009, according to the latest data from Click Forensics.

Click Forensics told WebProNews that the amount of click fraud traffic from botnets generally hovers around 33 percent, and it believes the sudden rise may be to due to the increasing sophistication and proliferation of botnets.

Botnets accounted for 42.6 percent of all click fraud in Q3 2009, more than doubling in the past two years and up from the 27.5 percent reported for the same quarter last year.

One of the largest click fraud rings ever detected, originating from China, has been shut down by click fraud monitoring firm Anchor Intelligence.

"This is really the first time anyone has ever been able to catch click fraudsters ‘in the act.’ Anchor has identified fraudsters down to the publisher site, IPs used (likely via botnets), and even the names and address of some perpetrators," an Anchor spokesperson told WebProNews. 

The Interactive Advertising Bureau announced that a significant milestone has been reached in the "war on click fraud." In May, the organization released its Click Measurement Guidelines, and some of the top media companies have already passed the IAB’s audits.

These companies include Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, as well as Business.com. When we think click fraud, the major search engines tend to come to mind, but that is still not the entire picture, obviously.

Click Forensics has introduced a new tool to help marketers combat click fraud.

The new tool is called "Block List" which provides ad networks with a continually updated list of visitor IP addresses and publishers known to generate online click fraud. Block List can be used with the Click Forensics platform to block invalid traffic and to shift  advertsing dollars to other sources that offer better results.

The Block List tool could help marketers reduce the rate of click fraud between 15 to 25 percent according to Click Forensics.

Facebook is currently involved in a couple of separate lawsuits. One of them involves click fraud and the other involves data portability.

The Click Fraud Suit

There have been numerous complaints from Facebook advertisers about click fraud, which has apparently been ramped up in recent days. Facebook has acknowledged the issue and claims to be doing something about it.

Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that Microsoft is suing three people, accusing them of click fraud. The company apparently filed a complaint on Monday in a US federal Court in Seattle.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced today the release of its Click Measurement Guidelines aimed at establishing accurate buying and selling of cost-per-click advertising.

The guidelines are supported by key industry stakeholders, provide a strong framework for identifying and discarding fraudulent clicks.

The Click Measurement Guidelines:

Click fraud declined in the first quarter of 2009 to 13.8 percent, according to Click Forensics’ Click Fraud Index.

That’s down from the all-time high of 17.1 percent reported for the fourth quarter of 2008 and from the 16.3 percent rate reported for the first quarter of 2008.

Ask.com has tapped Anchor Intelligence and will use its ClearMark software to score all of its paid search clicks.

The goal of Ask’s partnership with Anchor Intelligence is to protect its advertisers and partners from paying for fraudulent clicks.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has announced the release of Click Measurement Guidelines, a document establishing parameters for buying and selling cost-per-click (CPC) adver

Click Forensics has released its latest figures on click fraud for the fourth quarter and says it has jumped to the highest level since 2006.

The overall industry average click fraud rate grew 17.1 percent for the fourth quarter of 2008. That’s up from 16.0 percent in Q3 2008 and from 16.6 percent for Q4 2007.

The average click fraud rate of PPC ads appearing on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was 28.2 percent. That’s up from 27.1 percent rate reported for Q3 2008 and down slightly from 28.3 percent for Q4 2007.

Even as we approach the end of 2008, click fraud is still something that needs to be dealt with in the search engine advertising industry. Google takes a number of precautions to keep it under control though.

In the session "Search Engines on Auditing" the speakers discussed how search engines handle auditing concerns.

Richard Zwicky, Founder & CEO, Enquisite, discussed auditing issues with PPC and how they try to figure out what went wrong.
 
Analytics ecosystem:

Collect

Analyze

Report

Optimize

Monetize

Ways ad networks protect you:

Invalid/discounted clicks

Real time behavior analysis

Proactive filtering

Over-time analysis

A phrase like “cookie stuffing” sounds like it could have only pleasant connotations: Cookie Monster cookie-stuffing his face; ice cream with cookie stuffing; the cream between Oreos. Leave it to a lawyer to run that for everybody.

Forestle is a search engine built on Google Custom Search, with the goal of saving the Rain Forests. That seems like a noble enough cause.

Their methods of going about this, however, have gotten the site’s search functionality revoked by Google. When you try to perform a search on Forestle, you get a big pink box with a message from the Forestle team. The message goes:

Advertising clients who feed Google’s revenue machine may not always know the difference between an illicit click and one that’s outright fraudulent. Google wants them to understand which is which.

Criminals who automate their way to profit at the expense of pay per click advertisers likely drove an increase in illicit clicks in Q2 2008.