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Even though Overture knows the Click Rate Percentage of keywords and even what the average daily cost of different keywords depending on thier rank they do not turn off the deductions from your account even when traffic is suddenly 3-4-5-600% more than usual.. in fact.. they don't stop the deductions AT ALL even though they have the data which would clearly indicate that fraud is taking place. Instead..they let your account get wiped out...and if you want to contest the fraud, well...get in line...minimum time to dispute it..10 days..
For example, suppose you bid on a keyword that costs $5/click thru and averages about 50 click throughs per day... you deposit what overture says is three days worth of money... or about $750 dollars. That same day your account gets wiped out by fraud... why didn't overture stop allowing deductions from your account when it was clear that your account was being charged for over the daily average? Because they don't care to do that for you - they are in on the benefit of the fraud- this is called a "fence for stolen goods."
Does Overture check MAC address? MAC address is the address of the hardware your computer uses...harder to change then IP number. NO even though it provides much better protection. Is it easy to change your IP and delete your cookies to fool overture? Yes.. so it is very easy for fraud to take place on Overture and thier filters are completely lame ... they are like cigarette filters in preventing cancer - they don't work. They claim some secret formula- is it charcoal?
Overture could easily stop charging customers when it is clear that the keyword they are bidding on is well over the average daily cost but they don't. Not even when it's 10 times the daily average!
Also, Overture could stop all repeated clicks from the same class C but they don't ..they could do allot to stop the fraud and at the minimum stop charging advertisers when it's happening.
Why doesn't overture do more about click fraud? Because they make more money on the fraud... They better stop allowing so much fraud because by not implementing some better protection THEY ARE A FENCE FOR STOLEN GOODS. I don't think anyone is buying thier lame filter protection as being enough to exhonerate them. They can easily stop charging advertisers when it is clear that traffic is unusual...they themselves estimate the cost of three days of traffic but allow an account to be wiped out in one day. They claim to have fraud protection that is state of the art ...but it is not state of the art and anyone can delete cookies and change thier ip number...and they do nothing to protect the advertisers account when fraud is happening...they just don't care right now. I'm sure a few lawsuits will change things... maybe letters like this will make them put in at least a reasonable effort at protecting thier advertisers money.
