back to article Botnet click fraud at record high

Malware-infected computers are increasingly being used to perpetrate click fraud, according to a study released Thursday that found their contribution was the highest since researchers began compiling statistics on the crime. In the third quarter of this year, 42.6 percent of fraudulent clicks were generated by computers that …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Neal 5

    At last

    "It's in everyone's best interest in the online community to find and stamp out click fraud," Pellman said. "The fraudsters are trying to stay a step ahead of those efforts."

    Recognizing at least that everyone needs to play a part, it's no good blaming just MS or Google or Yahoo for the wrongs of the web.

    Perhaps hosting sites could do something about malware laden sites on their servers, perhaps on an educational level, people could be made aware that maintaining a level of "cleanliness" on their own computers would alleviate part of the problem, as for ISP's, already able to block P2P/Torrent traffic, could enabling a filter on traffic to/from malware laden sites.(This I already know is feasable, and for instance, is used for blocking child porn sites).

    Don't go shooting me down for offering an opinion that may vary from your's, it's my right, exactly the same one you're using to respond.

  2. ph3d
    Grenade

    clickity click

    "It's in everyone's best interest in the online community to find and stamp out click fraud,"

    why dont these companys f*** off and stop giving people the oppertunity to pimp there adverts in the first place for cash, if they are going to try to plauge as many websites with as many ads as they possibly can they deserved to be the victims of click fraud

    ./me fires up cpaxtreme and makes a killing just to annoy the companies pimpin adverts.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    Why are they called fraudsters

    You know, we're pretty good at coming up with new names for crime on the internet. But it should be more clear that it is a crime. They're not "fraudsters" they're thieves and should be named so. This type of crime should not be sugar coated, it's a crime as any other. Additionally they're usurping the identity of the person who owns the computer on which the bot runs (if he or she didn't agree explicitely to it).

    So once again say it with me: not frausters, THIEVES!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Psychology?

    I've often heard it said that people will get the behavior they reward. If marketroids pay for clicks, then clicks are all they can logically expect to get. Even calling it 'fraud' is an attempt to spin their own practice. It's more a case of them learning that there are others in the world who are even sneakier than they are.

    OTOH, if ISPs had a backbone (...intended...) and shut off the spew from robots, spammers, and rogue peers, it would be a moot point.

    A pox on all their houses.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like