| Click fraud is a multi-faceted problem, it costs ALL | | | | tactics of real world crime prevention is openly |
| advertisers, it costs Google, and ultimately, it | | | | advertising the presence of community |
| costs legitimate publishers in lost ad revenues. | | | | watchdogs. Community policing efforts that make |
| Anyone who has worked in law enforcement and | | | | a lot of noise are an effective deterrent to real |
| loss prevention in the brick and mortar world can | | | | world crime. |
| tell you that community involvement in policing | | | | A community forum for click fraud prevention |
| efforts is one of the single most effective crime | | | | serves as a central distribution point for data |
| deterrents in existence. As a community of | | | | about click fraud, its extent and the newest |
| concerned web publishers and advertisers, we can | | | | methods being used to defraud and to combat |
| take our cue from the most effective crime | | | | fraud. One of the more obvious examples of how |
| prevention tactics of the brick and mortar world. | | | | this type of community works is in the realm of |
| Take a look at how many cities have cleaned up | | | | virus protection, where a number of high profile |
| their streets to see how those efforts can | | | | communities track the progress of new viral |
| translate to the online world and PPC advertising. | | | | infections and collaborate on methods of |
| Step I: Hold Open Community Forums | | | | removing them from infected computers. |
| The first step in any community policing effort is | | | | Back in 1999, a new virus hit the internet that |
| open communication between law enforcement | | | | frustrated users whose efforts were thwarted as |
| and the community. Bringing everyone together | | | | the software reinstalled itself time and again. The |
| allows them to share and define common goals, | | | | first mention of the virus hit the tech community |
| and create strategies to meet them. An open | | | | boards at 5 AM EST. By 7 AM, two hours later, |
| forum for advertisers, publishers and providers will | | | | there were dozens of users around the world |
| create a sense of community and foster | | | | working on the solution - nearly three hours |
| disclosure of methods, metrics and tactics. By | | | | before the major commercial virus protection |
| opening the discussion to input from all concerned, | | | | companies had even posted an alert. By 8:30 AM, |
| the community can air concerns and share | | | | the open community forum had isolated the |
| solutions. | | | | solution in bits and pieces, and working from each |
| Open discussion also fosters another type of | | | | other's successes, had posted an effective |
| interaction that has been proven to increase | | | | solution to remove the virus from infected |
| effective community policing: brainstorming. When | | | | computers. |
| you bring together many minds, solutions emerge | | | | Imagine that kind of power and backing to |
| that no one person working alone would have | | | | identify, isolate and combat new methods and |
| imagined. Those solutions include innovations based | | | | perpetrators of click fraud. |
| on existing strategies. This is the basis of open | | | | Step IV: Leverage the Power of Numbers to |
| source software communities, and it should be | | | | Bring About Change |
| the basis of creating software aimed at detecting, | | | | There's strength in numbers and networking. At |
| preventing and eliminating the sources of click | | | | the moment, the PPC engines rely on pre-click |
| fraud. | | | | filtering to weed out fraudulent clicks before |
| Step II: Increase Police Presence | | | | payment is issued for them. They respond to |
| In the 'real world', police departments increase | | | | requests for refunds if the advertiser can prove |
| police presence in a community by deploying | | | | their claim of fraudulent clicks. By leveraging the |
| more officers to neighborhoods in trouble, | | | | power of community, advertisers and publishers |
| establishing community work stations and | | | | can: |
| developing relationships within the community. In | | | | - Share strategies for tracking click fraud down |
| the Internet world, community policing has to | | | | that goes beyond pre-click analysis. |
| take on a different face. There are no streets, no | | | | - Support each other's efforts when seeking |
| neighborhoods or beats to patrol. Instead, each | | | | refunds by sharing data to help establish a trend |
| shopkeeper is responsible for protecting his own | | | | pattern and make proof easier to display |
| property. And there's the rub: the protection is | | | | - Demand more transparency and accountability |
| only as good as the sum of the owner's | | | | from the search engines and PPC providers. This |
| knowledge and economics. | | | | will in turn allow advertisers AND publishers to |
| A community solution to click fraud includes free, | | | | monitor their own sites more efficiently as well as |
| openly available and scalable click fraud detection | | | | report back to the PPC engines on the |
| software that is easily extendable. By maintaining | | | | effectiveness of the filtering efforts. |
| open discussions in the community via a forum, | | | | By sharing information and support, we can make |
| developers can create add-ons to the existing | | | | a difference and put a major dent in the losses |
| software and make them freely available to | | | | due to click fraud. Click Sentinel is designed to |
| increase the capacity of the entire community to | | | | capitalize on the strength of community. The Click |
| protect itself. | | | | Sentinel community is more than software - it's a |
| Step III: Educate the Community and Notify the | | | | blueprint and infrastructure that is designed to |
| Wrongdoers. | | | | foster, support and extend community and hit |
| Believe it or not, one of the more effective | | | | click fraud where it can't fight back. |