Microsoft Sues Three For Click Fraud

[24HourDomainer]

The scheme involved promoting the sale of World of Warcraft currency and collecting auto insurance referral fees. By Thomas Claburn Microsoft on Monday filed a lawsuit against three individuals residing in Canada for allegedly promoting the sale of ...


http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=217900193

[Devil Dog]

ouch

[copper]

"Competitor click fraud".
That stand out most for me.
How terrible.

[stewie]

interesting story

thx

[liberator]

Thanks for the link

[HarveyJ]

It's pretty easy to buy scripts that will do this for you if you know where to look.
If you think about it, it's clever... butthey really should have done a little of it to themselves as well so that they could claim they were victims too, and add a layer of deniability.

[Seraphim]

Whatever the damages were, Microsoft may hurt themselves even more by allowing this story to go public. So much for advertiser confidence.

I wonder how many of these sorts of things happen with AdWords, yet Google is likely too smart to ever allow the story to get air time.

[snicksnack]

there are plenty of google click fraud stories around. simply google it

[Seraphim]

Originally Posted by snicksnack

there are plenty of google click fraud stories around. simply google it

They're out there without question, difference is Google is better at damage control than Microsoft apparently. At a glance, this story is all over the media, even mainstream media sources have picked it up. Unwise on their part.

[snicksnack]

not too sure if this is unwise. I can also be turned into a positive thing.

"Each search engine has click fraud, but we at Microsoft nailed the guys and sending out a message to everyone else trying who wants to consider click fraud. We at Microsoft drag you to court come after your money...."

[Seraphim]

Originally Posted by snicksnack

not too sure if this is unwise. I can also be turned into a positive thing.

"Each search engine has click fraud, but we at Microsoft nailed the guys and sending out a message to everyone else trying who wants to consider click fraud. We at Microsoft drag you to court come after your money...."

So if you were a high budget advertiser, and you just came across this story today, you would up your daily ad budget?

If I just found out the oil lube shop up the street was mixing sand in the oil, I would take a break from using the company's services until I could get a handle on the truth of the situation (find out if my account has been affected, etc.). The next step would be to use an alternative service provider until then (aka AdWords). If one group was manipulating the ad system, chances are other parties are still doing it at least on a smaller scale.

[south]

While I'm certainly not one that would normally defend MS, I think they have made the right decision in this case. It's a good thing to go after the fraudsters. Helps to keep the legit publishers, and the business model itself cleaner, and presents a better image to other advertisers, reassuring them that they are actively pursuing fraud.

MS's blog about it: https://community.microsoftadvertisi...ick-fraud.aspx

And here: http://microsoftontheissues.com/cs/b...ick-fraud.aspx