...s click fraudas clicks arising for reasons other than the good-faithintention of an Internet user to visit a web site to purchasegoods or services or to obtain information. Google defines clickfraud, or invalid clicks, as any method used to artificiallyand/or maliciously generate clicks or page impressions. Insimple words, Click fraud means that someone is cheating you andthat you pay too much for your pay per click campaigns. Who isdoing that? Three main groups click on pay ...

...per click ads,without real interest in the offered goods: People who joinedGoogle AdSense or other per click affiliate programs click onthe ads on their own web site to make a little income. Often,these people cooperate with other webmasters to click on eachother's ads. Some unethical companies click on the pay per clickads of competitors to drive up their advertising costs.Companies (often in India, Russia and China) hire people who arepaid to click on ads. Google and other search networks providerefunds to advertisers when click fraud has been discovered.Google and Overture employ "fraud squads," or teams of peoplededicated to fighting click schemes. But at least two marketingexecutives say such countermeasures are missing fraudulentclicks that are responsible for between 5 percent and 20 percentof advertising fees paid to all search networks. This is a hugeproblem. There is no “pay per click” Company denying that clickfraud exists. Web analytics companies estimates that the 50% ofall click activity is fraudulent. This means that your pay perclick marketing activities are half effective as they could bebecause of click fraud. Overture spokeswoman Jennifer Stephensrefutes that estimate, saying that the numbers likely representacts of fraud that are ultimately caught. She added thatOverture filters most fraudulent clicks with the best antifraudsystem in the industry, which combines technology and humananalysis. Most advertisers are aware of the click-fraud issuebut have not delved into it because of the technicalcomplexities involved. Others are concerned that they couldjeopardize their relationships with the powerful search networksif they complain too loudly. One of the best ways to eliminateclick fraud is using anti click fraud services such as ppctrax(www.ppctrax.com). They provide services like the below: IPaddress capture. IP address geographic Location. User Agent(browser, bot etc.) See exactly what keywords are generatingyour clicks Date and Time stamp System detects sudden clickspikes from one or more IP addresses Real-time email alerts at80% and 100% of your account's transaction utilization IPaddress history - alert you to prior offenders Another similarservice is “who is clicking who”: http://www.whosclickingwho.comOther ways is the click fraud capture software like ClickAuditor: http://www.keywordmax.com/click_auditor.html