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

engines not to crack down on it. The legal precedents are not favorable - lawsuits havenot deterred fraudsters from perpetrating click fraud as the risk of getting caught is slim.Judgments against the search engines have not been encouraging for advertisers. Thelack of federal or state laws and the global environment that electronic commerceoperates in further exacerbates the problem. The industry is largely unregulated and lacksa governing body. If there were a governing body, they would likely have little or noauthority to enforce. While the concept of click fraud is simple, the mechanics behind itare complex. Advertisers are largely unsophisticated and the fraudsters are technicallysavvy. There is so much mistrust within the industry and it does not help when Googleand Yahoo are indirectly aiding in the fraud. Click fraud is a very lucrative business andopen to almost anyone with a computer.Currently, all that can be done by advertisers is to reduce the chances of becoming avictim of click fraud by determining which clicks are invalid, so billings are appropriate.However, this does not prevent click fraud.In order to protect the industry from click fraud, the industry must become more vigilant.Advertisers must shoulder the responsibility to protect themselves. Better technologiesmust be developed to make it more and more difficult for the fraudsters to exploit thesystem. Search engines like Google and Yahoo need to work closely with advertisers.Standard definitions of what a fraudulent click is and an agreed upon audit process mustbe established in order to verify the authenticity of clicks. Finally, the entire processmust be open to independent third party verification. Transparency is the key.53