Click fraud

[domaingenius]

SUN VALLEY, Idaho: Swindlers have stepped up their effort to fleece millions of dollars from online advertisers who use lucrative marketing networks run by Google and Yahoo, according to a quarterly report to be released today. The sales referrals generated by clicks on the brief advertising links popularised by the two Internet powerhouses are a sham 14.1 per cent of the time, based on information collected from 1,300 online marketers. That's up from a click fraud rate of 13.7pc three months ago, according to Click Forensics, a San Antonio-based consulting service that compiles the index. A recent survey of 407 online advertisers by market research firm Outsell Inc estimated click fraud cost advertisers $800 million last year.