Computer fraud these days involves sophisticated software. One has to really pay attention to keep up with each new scam. As technology continues to be way out ahead of consumers, this is something the average computer user will never be able to do. Case in point, I have yet to meet an average consumer that even understands how Google or Yahoo make their money in the first place.
One word that is not mentioned in this article is "Windows", yet these victims of bots are undoubtedly computers using the Microsoft Windows operating system, not Linux or MacOS.
Web Ads Present New Front in Hacker Wars
'Click Fraud' Gets More Sophisticated, Spurs Effort to Quell Scams Targeting Advertisers
June 15, 2006
The rise of "pay-per-click" online advertising, celebrated for turning Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. into enormous businesses, is proving a boon for cyberthieves.
Hackers are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to automate phony clicks on Internet ads and then hide the click fraud from detection. This threat, though still small, poses a challenge for Google, Yahoo and other Internet companies that sell pay-per-click ads and need to assure advertisers that they are paying for legitimate clicks from potential customers.
A catalyst has been the explosion of "bots" -- malicious software that hackers sneak onto thousands of home computers and network together into huge "botnets." The click-fraud programs can be changed quickly, making it easier for them to evade security software and to be customized for different fraud schemes.
Botnets are most commonly used to attack and shut down Web sites with floods of bogus traffic, often as part of extortion schemes, or to steal personal information for use in identity-theft scams.
But "bot masters" have also discovered pay-per-click advertising, in which advertisers pay anywhere from a few cents to $10 or more each time a consumer clicks on a keyword-generated ad. With bogus clicks, bots can help shady Web-site owners boost revenue from advertisers or aid businesses trying to drain competitors' ad budgets.
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How much of the click-fraud problem can be traced to botnets or to other methods such as "click farms," where cheap offshore workers manually click on ads, is unclear. Google and Yahoo declined to provide estimates.
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Botnets are a worry because they can mimic legitimate clicking behavior better than other methods. That is because they can harness large numbers of home computers and use them sparingly, improving the chance they will evade defensive measures that look for unusual traffic patterns. Botnets are also increasingly being designed to grow and operate quietly, making them harder to discover.
Because of the difficulty in fighting botnets, Google's Mr. Ghosemajumder says the company focuses on identifying patterns of malicious activity so that it can filter out bad clicks. Google also helped create the Stop Badware Coalition to educate consumers about malicious software, including programs that enlist unsuspecting PC users into botnets.
"A lot of people may not be aware that they need to protect their PCs," Mr. Ghosemajumder said, "We don't rely on them being able to do that. We protect our advertisers regardless."
