Yahoo Click Fraud Investigation Part 3 - The beating of the dead horse
As my wife can attest to, when something angers me I have a really hard time letting go. Some might call it perseverance, I think she just calls it annoying.
So, following up from last time when Yahoo said they found no problem with the traffic… They kindly suggested using their groundbreaking domain exclusion tool and change my tactic settings.
So, based on what they’ve told me (and what I’ve known for awhile about their detection systems), here’s the way to commit click fraud on Yahoo*…
1. Register a bunch of domains and park them.
2. Get a fresh proxy list, have a friends and family network, employ a PTR system, set up an arbitrage system on a second or third tier PPC system,
find open WiFi networks, employ a botnet, build a browser helper object or any other number of ways to generate clicks from multiple IP addresses.
3. Distribute small number of clicks on each domain but never have multiple clicks from the same IP address.
4. Stamp the CTR by flooding the domains with impressions that don’t click.
5. Profit.
Sure, eventually enough advertisers may ad the domain to their block list to make it ineffective, but for $7 I get to start ALL OVER AGAIN.
All they’re doing is looking at the lowest hanging fruit. The click fraud guys are MILES ahead! The pattern is right in front of Yahoo’s eyes if they even bother to check the registration of the domains. The domains I’ve added to my exclusion list are based on domain names residing on the same servers as what I’ve seen to be problematic domains. Of course, they can just go register a few more domains and start again. Before you know it, I’ve hit my 250 max.
And I’m one of the GOOD GUYS! I’m sure the click frauders have many more ways than what I’ve detailed above.
It’s 2008. Try to keep up.
*Obviously, I DO NOT recommend or advocate doing any of the steps above. If you do, you’ll be stealing and that’s illegal. So don’t do it. But if you’re an advertiser, you need to know just how easy it is to defeat their ’sophisticated’ systems.
Andy,
Excellent post, and the more I understand about this the more my eyes widen. I though the “wild wild west” days of the Net were over for the most part, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Is there any way you could identify specific repeat offenders and pursue litigation? Maybe the threat of the law would get Yahoo to straighten up and pay attention! You could even assemble a coalition of victims who didn’t get refunds and start making some noise…that’s fun to think about!
Thanks for keeping us up to date.
That is one of the best replies………………