Online Advertising Survival: Combating Click Fraud - University of ...

collaborate with their counterparts in Russia, Europe and Asia to combat crimes of aglobal nature, which is befitting of internet crime.However, the authorities should not be counted on to do anything about it just yet. Whileit falls under the bigger umbrella on online fraud, cyber espionage and computerintrusions, click fraud itself does not appear to be illegal at this time. To date, there arebeen no specific convictions due to click fraud.11.1 Victims of Click FraudClick fraud may appear to be a victimless crime because of the anonymity of the internetbut it is not. Aside from the advertiser, there are many victims of click fraud. Theconsumer will pay as costs will eventually be passed on in the form of higher prices.Alternatively, if retailers get priced out of online advertising, choices will be morelimited for the consumer when searching for a particular good or service. Search enginemarketers may see the rate of return on client marketing programs decline not as a resultof an ineffective program, but because of click fraud. As a result of delivering suboptimalprograms, they risk jeopardizing relationships with their clients. A studyconducted in 2006 by OutSell Inc., a market research company, found that 27% ofadvertisers reduced or stopped spending on pay per click advertising because of theproliferation of click fraud 52 . An additional 10% said they intend to curtail spending.Ultimately, the search engine and search engine affiliates network will pay the price asadvertisers will find it economically unfeasible to advertise online.52 Kopytoff, Verne, “Click fraud a huge problem”, San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/05/BUGL6JOQPA1.DTL,Retrieved May 15, 200842