Who knew competition could be derailed by the click of a mouse? A recent New York Times article discusses Microsoft’s legal battle against click fraud, another type of cybercrime.
As described on Microsoft’s blog, one variation of click fraud is involves a person or automated program clicking on an Internet ad, not because they are genuinely interested in the product, but as a method of harming the advertiser (so-called competitor click fraud). The usual targets are companies who have paid for their listing to be triggered by certain search terms and have pay-per-click contracts. An avalanche of clicks on the listing exhausts the competitor’s ad budget; this, in turn, allows a less-frequented site--usually affiliated with the clicker--to rise in the search results.
In an effort to bring these crimes to the foreground and “[t]o protect the integrity of online advertising for the benefit of all legitimate advertisers,” Microsoft filed a suit against three individuals (and many Does), alleging an extensive click fraud scheme.
Microsoft’s complaint, filed June 15, 2009 in the Western District of Washington, may be the start of major corporations taking aggressive action against this problem. Microsoft claims the scheme affected ads relating to both the auto insurance industry as well as to the World of Warcraft game. Tim Cranton, Microsoft’s associate general counsel, indicated this case was brought for its general deterrence value as well as for its ability to recoup the $750,000 in damages claimed. Having “decided to become more active in the commercial fraud area on the enforcement side,” Microsoft believes this case has significant potential to “change the economics around crime or fraud by making it more expensive.”
Although Microsoft has opened up a new front in the battle against click fraud, click fraud is not new. Both Google and Yahoo have dealt with click fraud problems of their own. Monitoring website traffic quality and practicing “click forensics” is now an enterprise unto itself. And although one such company, ClickForensics, estimates that traditional forms of click fraud are declining, it also presents some less sanguine findings: new forms of the fraud, deriving from malicious scripts, are on the uptick. Consumers, not just advertisers, are victims of click fraud. Stated simply, less advertising equates to less information in the marketplace--an outcome recognized as antithetical to competition and consumer choice.
