garyp
07-28-2004, 05:09 PM
A click fraud case study published on Marketing Sherpa (http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2775) today. It's titled, "How to Stop Click Fraud (Or at Least Get a Refund)."
pulsetoday
07-29-2004, 11:23 AM
A very intersting case study! Thanks for the link
Clicklab
08-03-2004, 10:38 AM
Unfortunately, the only means of identifying a returning visitor are cookies and the use of IP address.
Both of these techniques are useless against any somewhat intelligent perpetrator.
Mozilla Firefox browser allows you to configure any number of anonymous proxy servers. All you have to do is clear cookies and switch your IP address before every click.
And then there is software that does it, now even offered commercially. Both companies I know of are offshore.
Statistics is the only way to deal with sophisticated click thieves. You need to establish control groups, patterns, and evaluate every paid click against a number of criteria.
More on the system you can use to fight click fraud here:
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=379