What is click fraud?

If you use AdWords or AdSense, you've probably heard of "click fraud", a new trend in the computer underworld. But what is click fraud and how is it carried out?

AdSense, on the other hand, offers a payment mechanism whereby a publisher (someone who has an AdSense banner on their site) receives a certain amount of money each time someone clicks on the advert. Click fraud is therefore the practice of tricking people into clicking on adverts in order to increase their earnings.

Many people create websites with the sole aim of making money through Google's AdSense programme. These users achieve an amazing number of clicks by using a variety of techniques, some of which are complicated and sophisticated, while others are simple and easy.

The use of so-called "hitbots" is one of the most complicated. These are computer programmes that pretend to click on the links in AdSense ads (there are also some that actually click on the banners).

Google's AdSense protection method is far from ideal, and almost anyone can figure out how to get around it - ironically, by simply doing a Google search.

Another, more primitive method is to hire a large number of people in a poor country to click on your website's links. This means that these people sit and click on links all day so that you can make a fortune. They come from impoverished countries like India and are willing to work for as little as $0.50 an hour.

Of course, there is a catch to this method. If Google receives a large number of clicks from a single address, this address and the website that contained the AdSense banner will be blocked and the fraudster can be sued.

To prevent this, many users utilise a large number of proxy servers to prevent clicks. These are essentially Trojans that can be found on computers all over the world (although mainly in the USA). Even more frightening is that these clicks look like they are coming from a legitimate computer, making such scams extremely difficult to detect.

And don't assume that this only happens once in a while. There is a lot of criminal activity in this area.

In fact, there are so many of them that the illegal activities could cause even more damage if the search engine providers do not improve their security with programmes such as AdSense.

Google has a strict policy against click fraud and has already sued those who have used such tactics. Although the search engine giant is doing everything in its power to reduce the risk of click fraud, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

It is estimated that more than 20 % of the clicks that follow an AdSense link are made just to get money from the person who paid for the advert. Some experts believe that the number of false clicks is much higher.

There are many other tactics of click fraud, such as groups of AdSense publishers clicking on each other's links (called "click rings"), or spamming individuals to get them to click on such links.

Despite Google's efforts to keep click fraud under control, the situation among AdWords customers is worrying. Nevertheless, advertising via Google's AdSense is still more profitable for marketers than traditional, non-targeted advertising strategies.

There are ways to protect yourself from such methods and all advertisers should be aware of them. For fear of click fraud, many marketers choose to stay away from the content network altogether.