Dear [FIRSTNAME],

Click fraud involves the process of intentionally clicking ads

listed on your website for the purpose of earning money rather

than intending to view the products of the advertiser. Adsense

involves placing ads on your website for other businesses. The

way your website makes money is determined by the number of

clicks to the advertiser’s link. Most websites who participate

in Adsense are honest. However, the issue of click fraud is

happening more often on the internet as the owner’s of some

websites have found it an enticing method of generating more

money from the advertisers.

With the onset of click fraud, software has been designed to

analyze data based on the traffic to a website. This information

is used to determine the possibility of click fraud. If you

advertise this way you should invest in click fraud software or

you may pay more for advertising than you should be. This

software costs from $99 to $299, so it is very cost effective.

It is believed as much as 20% of the cost advertisers are paying

out each month is due to click fraud. With 3.2 million dollars

generated each year for this type of advertising, 20% is a very

high dollar amount to be losing!

A common method of click fraud involves an online robot that

clicks away at the advertisements listed on a particular

website. This is the quickest method. Others either do it

themselves, clicking away at the ads on their own website or

they hirer others to perform the task for them at a price much

less than what they receive in return from the advertisers.

Sometimes click fraud is done not to make money but to sabotage

competitors. This is done by finding websites that advertise for

them and continually click the ads. This will then cost that

competitor a great deal of money they have to pay out for

advertising without any hopes of generating additional sales

from that cost.

Those who participate in the act of click fraud should be very

careful. There are strict guidelines in place by Google to

protect the reputation of their Adsense operations. Anyone

caught participating in click fraud will be banned from further

advertisements on their website. Google has invested 2.7 million

for their Fraud Squad. They feel this investment is worthwhile

though as click fraud is a serious issue. It has the potential

of destroying the entire advertising industry online as we know

it.

There are legal issues involved as well. A California man was

charged with obtaining more than $150,000 due to click fraud in

2004. He has been indited by a Grand Jury. However, there are no

state or federal laws yet against click fraud. This particular

man was only indited in his scam because he came clean about it

with Google in a blackmail scheme. He was going to sell his

secret of how he did it to Google for another $150,000. If they

didn’t give it to him he threatened to keep on doing it. If we

can get state and federal laws to see click fraud as a

classification of fraud with the possibility of a felony charge

and jail time it may deter the amount of click fraud that takes

place.

To Your Success,

Joshua Shoemaker

P.S.

Click fraud is a huge issue that plagues the success of Adsense.

If you participate in Adsense then be warned on both sides of

the field. As a provider of such advertising don’t be tempted to

click on the ads yourself or with an automated system. The risk

of getting caught is very high as are the financial and legal

repercussions. As an advertiser pay close attention to high

changes in advertising costs through Adsense. Take the time to

question these increases. Is it click fraud or great increases

in traffic? Have sales increased? It is a great idea to invest

in click fraud software as well to protect your business as well

as your advertising budget.


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