jomaxx - 1:19 am on Dec 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

...But the simple fact is that an algorithm CANNOT be written to filter any but the simplest cases of fraudulent clicks. It's impossible. At best it can send up red flags to be investigated manually.

I can't comment on tbird's situation, but fraud has dragged down the value of every PPC program, and if you read the AdWords forum you can see it is already affecting AdSense earnings as well.

I think the risk of competitors clicking on your ads is somewhat overblown, because they are exposing themselves to significant risk without having much to gain, but ultimately if a site continues to generate a lot of suspicious untraceable clicks, what can Google do but terminate them?