Click Fraud
Click fraud is a type of fraud that occurs in pay-per-click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad’s link. This can result in financial losses for advertisers who are paying for the clicks.
There are several ways in which click fraud can be carried out, including:
- Click farms, where individuals or companies hire workers to click on ads all day
- Botnets, which are networks of infected computers that can be controlled remotely to click on ads
- Competitors clicking on each other’s ads to deplete their advertising budget
Click fraud is a serious issue in the online advertising industry, as it can lead to wasted advertising budgets and decreased trust in online advertising platforms. Advertisers and ad networks have developed various methods to detect and prevent click fraud, such as IP address monitoring, pattern recognition algorithms, and click tracking software.
It is important for advertisers to be aware of the risks of click fraud and take steps to protect themselves from potential losses.
Example: A small business owner running an online advertising campaign notices that a significant portion of their clicks are coming from a single IP address located in a foreign country. After investigating further, they discover that this IP address is associated with a click farm, and take action to block it from accessing their ads.
For more information on click fraud, you can visit Wikipedia.