Fraudulent click identification guide

Looking for a tips and tricks for spotting click fraud

[a2ztranslate]

Hello all, am looking to create a simple guide for some client webmasters who want to know what to look for to identify potential click fraud. Would love to hear what you look for in your logfiles etc. to spot any potential click fraud.

Thanks

[tak051]

These are just some very basic ones, but look for the same IP address showing repeatedly over a relatively short period of time. This isn't fool proof, as some ISP's proxy through only a few IPs. It's also a very simple fraud technique that would supposedly be caught (though it's happened to us).

Check for several clicks within seconds or just minutes of one another.

Depending on your analysis tool, see if the suspect clicks move through the site at all, or if the landing page has an extremely high abandonment rate.

As I said, these just barely scratch the surface, but they might give you a start.

[cabowabo]

Overseas clicked are always suspect as many "click fraud" camps have been discovered overseas.

[Tropical Island]

Sudden unusual activity in one term.

If you've been getting 5 clicks per day on average and you suddenly get 100 you be be pretty sure it's click fraud.

[dataguy]

This past week I received a list of "Bad IP's" from a major search-results provider, with an accompanying statement saying that they would not be paying for clicks from these IP addresses.

I found the data to be facinating (I'm like that) though I didn't have a lot of time to spend on it. Most of the IP's that I checked were proxy services.

I not using the data at this point, but I can imagine several scenarios where I might integrate this list into several of my web sites.

[cabowabo]

Any chance of posting the proxies for the rest of us to take a look at?

[califpizza]

I am the victim of click fraud on overture also (One of the reasons I joined this forum). I followed the advice of checking the log files for the ip address. Is there any way to find out if they are those anon proxy servers?

Thanks

[a2ztranslate]

Thanks all and keep them coming. When I have collated all the responses i will post a summary.

Regards

[califpizza]

Does Google charge advertisers for multiple clicks from the same IP in a 24 hour period?

I've heard something about a 15 minute rule?

How about Overture?

Any info or articles will be very helpful - Thanks

[androidtech]

Anyone who wants a list of public proxy servers PM me. I'd post the link but that's against the board's TOS.

Thanks.

[gmac17]

I have had good experience with a click fraud detection software. It tracks and sorts IP's of those that click on your ads across all the PPC engines. Especially helpful if you have a competitor clicking on your ads on google and overture on a daily basis....

I don't know if I can post the name of it, so pm me for details.