Specifically Cuban says, "The Bad Guys have figured out that they look a lot more legit getting checks from google than trying to wash 10k dollars in cash delivered in a bag."
It is very true, click fraud is a market in which it is hard to get caught and even harder to get prosecuted. Cuban agrees, "The Bad Guys have figured out that the risk of proving they are breaking the law with click fraud is minimal. Try explaining the difference to authorities between a blog, a splog and a website that is trying to make money from any of the many, many affiliate marketing programs that also happens to host adsense or other ad publishing network ads." Emphasis mine.
So what can be do about this problem? It does affect everyone even if you haven't been a target. I haven't been a target, but it still affects my prices on AdWords because Google has to take a greater cut to minimize the amount they lose due to click fraud. Wal-Mart does the same thing with their prices.
What can you do about click fraud? Unfortunately not much. You can report suspicious activitity to the PPC engines, but they might not respond or take any action. The only thing you can do is plan for click fraud and build that into your margins. If you have a portion of total gross covering click fraud you should be ok when it hits, and it will.
Have an idea about how to stop click fraud? Let's talk about it! Email me at brandonchopkins@gmail.com or post a comment below.
