Click Fraud Continues Climb

Are you paying for clicks? Then you should be aware that last year's growth in fake clicks (that advertisers still have to pay for) set a scary 15 percent pace.As noted in the bMighty ANTenna yesterday, figures just out from Click Forensics indicate that Q4 2007 saw an average fraudulent click-rate of 16.6 percent. That's one-in-six click-throughs.

The company's Click Fraud Index is worth a look to get a sense not only of growth rates, but also of geographic locations launching the click-cons.

Needless to say, stats like these set the big charge-for-clicks companies' teeth on edge, as witness this interview with Google click-cop Shuman Ghosemajumder, and this Click Forensics response interview, both from Forbes last year.

Click Forensics' current fraud findings are here.