Spyware stalker claims 180Solutions and others are used for Yahoo click fraud

Staff: Spyware hunter Ben Edelman gives the play-by-play on how certain… adware… perverts Yahoo’s pay-per-click program to defraud advertisers.

In overview, it works like this: The adware automatically clicks on pay-per-click advertisements presented by Yahoo on the websites of Yahoo syndication partners.

Thus, pay-per-click advertisers pay Yahoo for ads that never had a chance to sell anybody anything.

What’s in it for adware producers? Edelman postulates that the owner of a website that displays Yahoo pay-per-click ads (who gets a commission each time an onsite ad is clicked), works with an adware maker to automatically click onsite ads. This pumps up the website owner’s income without helping the advertiser at all.

The same issues dog those who buy pay-per-click ads from Google and other vendors. As Email Battles has told you before, advertisers can easily limit fraud-risk by declining to advertise outside websites directly controlled by the vendor.

More importantly, Yahoo, Google, et al could do a better job of picking their partners.

Email Battles Backgrounder:

• Yahoo! Requires that Publishers Block International Traffic; NewsByte; Email Battles; 23 March 2006
• Questions Abound After Texas Sharpshooter Wings Google for Adwords; Email Battles; 09 March 2006
• An Empirical Test Of Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click Fraud; Email Battles; 03 March 2006
• 180Solutions does 180 to face StopBadware; NewsByte; Email Battles; 30 January 2006
• CDT goes for 180solutions throat after Edelman does the homework; NewsByte; Email Battles; 23 January 2006

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