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The entry of Fair Isaac into the click fraud venue spurred a lot of debate with the arrival of their preliminary report. Fair Isaac will try expanding the data with the help of click fraud detection firm AdWatcher. AdWatcher CEO and director of operations, Boris Mordkovich, may be known to our readers from his role as publishers of Search Marketing Standard magazine. His AdWatcher role touches the same territory as what Fair Isaac entered with its study of click fraud.

Fair Isaac shook up the online advertising world with its early determination of a much higher rate of click fraud affecting advertisers than has been previously determined. The initial research by Fair Isaac chief scientist Joseph Milana found rates of 10 to 15 percent of "pathological" traffic hitting advertisers.

The need for more data from a broader pool of advertisers became apparent when it was revealed Fair Isaac only had a sample of less than a dozen for its research. They may be on their way to broadening that pool now.

Boris contacted us to say AdWatcher and Fair Isaac were now working together. AdWatcher will contact large volume advertising clients about participating in Fair Isaac's ongoing study of click fraud. Those clients would be anonymous in the reports Fair Isaac produces.

Google derided the small sample used by Fair Isaac when they first publicized their findings. If Fair Isaac can grow its pool and demonstrate click fraud rates run in the same range as their initial report, Google and others will be hard-pressed to discount such a discovery.