Online Auction Fraud

Online Auction Fraud

by: Steven Woodward

As the ecommerce industry continues to grow, so does internet fraud. Most people aren’t aware that the fastest growing segment of internet fraud isn’t identity theft but rather online auction fraud and itกs not just buyers who are being ripped off but sellers as well.

eBay sales may have grown 51% last year over the previous year, but general online complaints jumped by 66.6% over the previous year to some 207,000+ complaints in 2004. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), stated in its yearly report that 71.2% of all complaints received pertained to auctions.

Online fraud is a growing problem on the internet and the auction segment is far from immune. The IC3 reports that most complaints consist of late or no shipment of products, items that don’t match advertised condition and bogus payment or escrow services.

If you decide to offer กall items to be shipped within 24 hoursก, make sure you keep your word, and go to great lengths to honestly represent and describe the item in your auctions. Your bidders will appreciate your honesty and it will eventually show up in your feedback.

As consumer fears increase, there are a number of common sense ways to help protect you from fraud, as well as enhance your reputation as a trustworthy seller and set you apart from the crowd.

Watch Out for Bad Checks, Money Orders and Cashiers Checks

Years ago I had a buyer who complained rather loudly when I didn’t ship an item as soon as I received the check in the mail. In hind site it was a good decision to hold the shipment since the check ended up being fraudulent. Bad checks, money orders, and cashiers checks are rampant in ecommerce today. The simplest way to offset the danger of bad paper is not to ship the auction item until the check, money order or cashier check clears your bank for payment.

Overpayments

Never accept any overpayments for any item. One of the more popular scams today is for a buyer to send a cashiers check for an amount that is higher than the agreed upon final price. They then claim it was in error and ask the seller to kindly return the overage when the item is shipped. Off goes the item, the overage amount in good money, and the defrauded seller finds out too late the cashiers check was fake.

Use an Escrow Service for High Priced Items

The primary purpose of escrow services is to protect buyers and sellers from fraud. Basically what they do is to accept the money from the buyer and hold it until the buyer receives and approves the merchandise. Please note that fake escrow services are increasing on the internet. If a buyer contacts you after a sale and recommends an escrow service you are not familiar with BEWARE. At present eBay only recommends one escrow company: www.escrow.com. For information go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/paymentescrow.html

Records, Records, Records

Keeps a copy of every transaction detail from the original auction listing to the last email. You will need that kind of proof to validate your claims if you should find you need to file a complaint.

Protect Yourself by Being Educated

At the very least you need to be knowledgeable about your legal obligations as a seller and familiar with the fraud protections and policies for the auction sites and payment processing services you use. eBay and Paypal have extensive sections on their websites dedicated to fraud policies and protections. You should take the time to read through these or similar information pages for the sites and services you use on a regular basis and be very familiar with the material. A few of the key recommendations from Paypalกs Protection for Sellers section include:

Ship only to the address listed on the Transaction Details page

Use a shipping service with tracking

Check out the buyerกs reputation

Accept payment from only one Paypal account per buyer

Limit credit card payments

Enhancing Your Safe Seller Image

Here are a few tips that will help improve your image as a safe seller for your bidders.

Identify Yourself Make use of the about me pages to let your customers know who you are, how long youกve been in business and how much their business means to you. Be honest.

Feedback Ratings Auction buyers want to see 100% positive feedback.

Methods of Payment Make it easy for your customers to buy but consider convenience, cost and security in choosing any payment method you offer.

Full Disclosure Your auction listings should clearly state the condition of the item you’re auctioning, your shipping/insurance and return policies.

Bonding programs A number of bonding programs are available on the internet. One of the more popular is BuySafe (www.buysafe.com). In a bonding program the seller agrees to certain obligations such as shipping on time, representing the item correctly, and standing behind the transaction. In return the seller can display a seal on their auctions showing bidders they are honest sellers and providing transaction insurance in some cases up to $25,000.

Other programs you should be familiar with include:

IDVerify

SquareTrade

Truste

If You Become a Victim of Online Fraud

You need to know exactly what should be done in the event you are victimized. Make your plan now, before it happens. The most recommended steps to take if you are victimized are listed below but please keep in mind these are general recommendations and you should have you own plan based on your needs.

File a complaint with your auction site

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission

File a complaint with the IC3

File a complaint with the National Fraud Information Center

Contact your local and state law enforcement agencies

Contact the local and state law enforcement agencies in the perpetratorกs home area

File a complaint with the shipping company you used

If the perpetrator is a business and a member of the Better Business Bureau you should also file a complaint there.

Further reading

Paypal Seller Protection Policy (go to your Paypal account)

FTC recommendations http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/auctions.htm

To read the entire 2004 IC3 Internet Fraud Report http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/strategy/2004_IC3Report.pdf

More Important Fraud Links

Find Your Local Police http://www.usacops.com

FBI Internet Fraud Unit http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.com

FTC Internet Fraud Unit https://m.ftc.gov

USPS Mail Fraud http://www.usps.com/postalinstpectors/fraud/

About The Author

© Copyright 2005 Steven Woodward All Rights Reserved

Steven Woodward is the owner, editor and publisher of the Auction Sellers Network (ASN); a web site for individuals and companies who are serious about utilizing the online auction marketplace for their business. In addition to topical articles, ASN provides an extensive resource center, news feeds, member forums and classified ads. For more information or to become a member please visit http://www.AuctionSellersNetwork.com.

No permission is needed to reproduce an unedited copy of this article as long the About the Author tag is left intact and included. We do request that we be informed where it is posted and reciprocal links will be considered.

This article was posted on April 04

by Steven Woodward

Is Click Fraud Really a Problem?

Is Click Fraud Really a Problem?

by: Tommy Maric

Click fraud is currently a major topic in online advertising. Many argue that it presents a threat to the stability and viability of payperclick (PPC) advertising, the key revenue generator for both Google and Overture. In actuality, click fraud is not a significant issue at all.

Click fraud occurs when ads are clicked for reasons other than a genuine interest in learning more about the product or service advertised. Click fraud occurs in two forms. In one instance, fraud arises from competitors trying to sabotage each other. One competitor clicks on the ads of another just to drain the budget of that company. The other instance occurs when webmasters (or people associated with the webmaster) repeatedly click Google AdSense ads (which are syndications of others’ ads) on their own web pages in order to generate more revenue. While both Overture and Google have developed sophisticated technologies to detect click fraud, their systems are, and may never be, foolproof.

The real question is how much does click fraud actually damage the PPC industry? Gross fraud, i.e., when one person or technology consistently and repeatedly clicks on an ad, aside, which Overture and Google can easily detect, we believe that click fraud has no real impact on the industry. The following explains why.

Efficient market theory says that it is impossible to ขbeat a marketข because prices already incorporate and reflect all relevant information. As the PPC industry has matured, efficiency has begun to take root. That is, the price of each keyword has been driven up to the point where it reflects the highest price an advertiser is willing to pay for a click.

For instance, a book retailer may pay $1.00 per click based on internal metrics. These metrics dictate, for example, that on average 30% of clickers purchase a book and the average profit per sale is $4.00. So, for every 100 clicks ($100 cost), they make 30 sales ($120 revenue) and generate a $20.00 (20%) profit. Note that years ago, the same retailer may have been able to pay only $0.50 per click, but as the market matured and more retailers began advertising, competitive bidding forced the price up to $1.00 where the highest return the most advertisers can make is 20%.

The key point is that click fraud is already taken into effect when advertisers select the highest amount they will bid. For instance, there is no difference whether an advertiser pays $0.83/click for 121 clicks with 21 being fraudulent, or $1.00/click for 100 clicks when there is absolutely no fraud. In either case, the advertiser pays $100 and generates a profit of $20, and Overture and/or Google make $100. What changes is the advertiser’s yield (e.g., the percent of clickers who purchased the book) which in turn effects their highest bid price. That is, with fraud, 30 out of 121 clickers (24.8%) purchased the book, and without fraud 30 out of 100 clickers (30%) purchased it. Without fraud, the bid price in an efficient market will rise from $0.83 to $1.00.

In summary, online advertisers must focus on analyzing and improving their internal metrics (e.g., conversions) and not worry about click fraud as it is already incorporated into keyword bid prices. Hopefully, the frivolous lawsuits and refund requests spawned by apparent click fraud will end as those in the industry recognize this undeniable fact.

About The Author

Tommy Maric is the manager of TopPayingKeywords.com. TopPayingKeywords.com is designed to help webmasters maximize their profits using Google’s Adsense™ program. Through extensive research, TopPayingKeywords.com develops uptodate databases of the most popular keywords and their accompanying bid prices. For more information, please visit http://www.toppayingkeywords.com.

Contact:

877TOPWORD

(8778679673)

tommy@[email protected]

This article was posted on April 13

by Tommy Maric

Advertising กClick Fraudก Rampant Online?

Advertising กClick Fraudก Rampant Online?

by: Jim Edwards

กPayperclick,ก by far the most popular form of online advertising, recently came under fire as charges of rampant กclick fraudก gather steam on the Web.

Google and Yahoo! earn the majority of their money through sales of advertising to tensofthousands of online merchants, companies, and professional.

In fact, some estimate that 99% of all Googleกs revenue comes from advertising sales. Unfortunately, allegations of click fraud may well rain on Googleกs otherwise sunny parade and cause a whole scale revamping of current online advertising practices.

Payperclick advertising does exactly what it sounds: advertisers pay for each click on their ad, usually mixed in among search engine results or displayed on relevant websites.

กClick fraudก occurs when, for whatever reason, an ad gets clicked by someone or something (usually an automated กbotก that simulates clicks) with no intention of ever buying anything from the advertiser.

The sole intention of click fraud is to simply drain an advertiserกs budget and leave them with nothing to show but an empty wallet.

Who commits click fraud?

Usually an unscrupulous competitor who wants to break a rivalกs bank, online กvandalsก who get their kicks causing other people grief, or search engine advertising affiliates who want to earn fat commissions by racking up piles of bogus clicks.

Regardless of who does it or why, click fraud appears to be a growing problem search engines hope stays under their advertising clientsก radar.

This problem isn’t exactly news to the search engine giants.

In fact, on page 60 of their 3rd quarter Report for 2004, Google admits that they have ‘regularly refunded revenueก to advertisers that was กattributed to clickthrough fraud.ก

Google further states that if they don’t find a way to deal with this problem ‘these types of fraudulent activities could hurt our brand.ก

Bottom line for Google and Yahoo! (which owns Overture, the Webกs largest payperclick search engine): as word of click fraud spreads across the Web, they must act quickly to calm the nerves of advertisers who could well abandon them over doubts about the veracity of their advertising charges.

The search engines all claim to carry measures that identify and detect click fraud, but details about how they do it and to what extent remain sketchy.

They claim revealing details about security would compromise their efforts and give the perpetrators a leg up on circumventing their defenses.

This sounds good, but affords little comfort to advertisers who feel caught between losing out on their best traffic sources and paying for advertising that won’t result in revenue.

One way to protect your business against click fraud is to closely monitor your website statistics.

Look for an unusually high number or regular pattern of clicks from the same IP address.

If you need help, enlist the aid of your hosting provider to aid you in spotting suspicious trends in your website traffic.

Also, a number of services such as ClickSentinel.com have sprung up online to help advertisers spot and quickly analyze and compile the data necessary to effectively dispute fraudulent click charges with the search engines.

© Jim Edwards All Rights reserved

http://www.thenetreporter.com

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the coauthor of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Simple ‘traffic Machineก brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months… without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

This article was posted on August 29

by Jim Edwards

PayPerClick Fraud ExposedPart II

PayPerClick Fraud ExposedPart II

by: Dean Phillips

According to Andy Jones, a member of the Best Practices Search Engine Forums, fraudulent clicks are just another aspect of the business. กAny of us that use AdWords or any other PPC has to pay for a certain percentage of fraudulent clicks,ก he said in a forum discussion. กI factor it in as a cost of doing business.ก

Can you believe that? In other words, heกs saying, I know the payperclick companies are stealing my money, but itกs okay, because Iกve considered that fact ahead of time.

Unfortunately, that mentality is pervasive among payperclick advertisers. No wonder the payperclick companies aren’t making stopping payperclick fraud a top priority. Who can blame them? If their advertisers don’t care, why should they? Heck, with all of the money the payperclick companies are making, itกs actually more cost effective to issue an occasional refund, than to develop technology to eliminate click fraud.

And if you read between the lines of the following statement, Google even admitted as much:

In a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google acknowledged, กWe are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members.ก

That statement doesn’t exactly instill any confidence, now does it?

And if Overture is asked about click fraud, theyกll just issue their standard company line:

กOur Click Protection System is sophisticated software that evaluates each of our advertisersก clicks. This software makes decisions as to the validity of any click. Our Click Protection System uses search and click data to make both rulesbased inferences and pattern recognitionbased inferences about which clicks are valid clicks. We have two patents pending related to this technology, so we cannot currently disclose too many details about the methods we use.ก

Do you honestly think newspaper, magazine, radio or tv advertisers would just sit back and let those media get away with blatantly stealing their money? You know they wouldn’t.

Then why do payperclick advertisers allow it? I don’t know the exact answer to that question, but I have my theories: First of all, you’re talking about a whole different level of sophistication with payperclick advertisers, compared to media advertisers. Many payperclick advertisers don’t even know how to access or even analyze their log files, so they have no idea how much money is actually being stolen from them.

In addition, some payperclick advertisers are making more money than theyกve ever made before. And rather than upset the apple cart, theyกd rather keep quiet and allow the vicious cycle of click fraud to continue, so that they can keep cashing those big checks.

I also suspect many advertisers are afraid that if they complain too loudly, they may be penalized in the search engines, in regard to their free listings.

If my theories are accurate, silence is one heck of a trade off, if you ask me. Why? Because according to a report on MediaPost, an online study done by Clicklab revealed that fraudulent clicks can account for more than 50 percent of your total clicks.

So, if the goal of payperclick search engines is to bring lucrative, targeted traffic to your web site, what are the payperclick search engines doing about the click fraud epidemic, to prevent abuse that needlessly drive up your costs and reduce your ROI?

Unfortunately, since so many payperclick advertisers are willing to play the role of กlambs going to slaughter,ก the payperclick companies really don’t have to do anything.

In the meantime, your ROI is going to continue to plummet, and the payperclick companies are going to continue to milk those cash cows (AKA) payperclick advertisers, for all they’re worth!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: [email protected].

Visit his website at: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on October 24, 2004

by Dean Phillips

How Do You Deal With Internet Fraud

How Do You Deal With Internet Fraud

by: Articsoft

Summary

Internet fraud should be addressed as two specific issues: fraud that uses Internet technology as an integral part of the fraud; fraud that is already taking place by other means and the Internet is merely another method of delivery.

Methods exist that stop fraudsters misusing the technology, which can be rapidly implemented, but factors such as industry acceptance and concerns over potential liability if previous security claims could be claimed to be inaccurate will delay introduction. Much effort is spent promoting logos and confusing selfregulation, and trying to catch fraudsters, whilst the adoption of formal standards and accreditation for security (such as ISO 17799) are only starting to take place.

New Internet environment crimes may exist, such as defrauding machines or causing business harm by denial of service or virus attacks, and these will require social and legal steps to address them. However, the Internet has provided the fraudster with access to a significantly bigger market than ever before and effort will be required to create an environment where fraud is resisted by design rather than by insurance.

Introduction

Internet fraud is said to be big business. But what is it, and does using the Internet create the fraud, or is the Internet just a different way of delivering ‘traditional’ fraud.

Fraud is essentially persuading someone of something with intent to deceive, perhaps with criminal intent. The deceit may be to persuade you to part with money, goods, services, rights or information.

For the purposes of this paper we are not going to examine methods of fraud, but look at the general techniques, how they are applied, and how, if at all, the Internet can be used to make those techniques easier for the criminal to use either to carry out a fraud or to escape detection.

General techniques of fraud

The key to fraud is to persuade you that something is real, when in fact it is not. Once you accept that the fake is real then the fraud can take place whatever it is. Whether you are buying the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco (both are real and have been seen by millions of people and have been regularly ‘sold’) the essence is to believe the proposal that is put to you.

Other types of fraud essentially persuade you to do something in the (wrong) belief that it should be done, or to accept something in settlement that proves to be without the value you were led to believe. But they all come back to the same thing the fraudster has to persuade you that his vision of the world is the correct one.

How do we normally counter fraud

In ordinary life there are many things set up to help avoid fraud. Mostly we rely upon physical things buildings (such as banks) help to prove to us that we are dealing with something real talking to people on the telephone on a number that is in a directory helps us believe that they are who we expect. At a more sophisticated level, businesses have to be registered and the directors names and addresses made public. There are also agencies with a duty to respond to complaints over the trading practices of businesses.

How does the Internet map to the real world

The Internet is rather different. The biggest problem for the Internet user is that there is no physical reference to use. You can’t go to a physical bookshop at www.amazon.com. You have to believe what the computer tells you, and that is the start of the problems.

We have many practical examples where people get the physical world wrong they put their bank cards into fake ATMs and enter their PINs, they tell their friends and children their passwords (sometimes in public), they sign up to ‘get rich quick’ deals with people they don’t know so how well are we set up to handle the Internet world, where web sites are just exactly as good as their designer intended?

The practical answer is just barely. The Internet is marketed as an anonymous zone. Information is free and users are anonymous. Now some of those features are desirable. When you go into a store it is the store that has to tell you who they are. If you pay with cash they will never know who you are and none of your legal rights are affected. They give you a receipt and you can check any of the details and get corrections made on the spot. If you want credit you have to tell them more about you, but not necessarily very much.

The Internet, by comparison, is anonymous whether you are the seller or the customer. For the seller it is as anonymous as they want to make it. This, of course, might be thought of as attractive to a fraudster.

Avoiding obvious frauds on the Internet

Some potential sources of fraud misrepresenting a business as that of someone else are being slowly dealt with. Domain name registration has almost reached the point where there is some certainty that www.harrods.com is the web version of a famous department store in Knightsbridge, London. But it is still very far from being fully resolved. It is still possible to register www.harrodds.com, www.harrodss.com. You can copy the real thing without too much difficulty, and with a bit of luck and some spelling mistakes a fraudster can still be in business.

But this type of fraud could be avoided by legislating to bring web site name registration into line with company registration rules, where similar names and ขpassing off ข are already dealt with. The methods for obtaining web site names that are primarily for ‘trade’ could also be addressed to ensure that they can only be obtained by registered businesses, and that the link between the domain name and the registered business is a matter of public record.

Some less obvious frauds

The Internet uses a technology called TCP/IP in order to send information between one point on the Internet and another. Unfortunately it was not designed to be secure, it was designed to be resilient. As a result it is possible to read information that travels around the Internet, and also to alter it. Therefore, it is possible both to read information that is not protected and copy information that has been protected using cryptography, (a technique that makes information unreadable to the unauthorized) and to change the unprotected information without being detected.

The effect of this is to create a situation where fraud can be carried out even when a genuine transaction is taking place. Fraud might include putting other recipient’s names on the distribution list to make you believe they are also involved or in agreement with what is going on. (This can happen in the physical world – processing a credit card transaction multiple times on paper and forging the signature from the valid bill.)

The fraud is subtle because it is impossible for either party to detect. It is effective because the fraudster may have gathered information that allows them to completely impersonate both parties in the future.

Solutions for technical problems

These frauds require a manipulation of the Internet technologies, and so can be resisted by technology. However, the technology being marketed to solve this problem Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), in the way in which it is usually implemented, has fundamental weaknesses, and has been shown to be capable of being defrauded. Many other schemes, based upon codes of practice and logos shown on web sites, although worthy in themselves, are equally capable of being defrauded. It seems strange that some advertising appears to suggest encryption technology using a 40 bit algorithm is perfectly secure for commerce, whilst also saying that 128 bit algorithms are essential.

Alternative technologies such as those from ArticSoft are being delivered now that allow end users to gain immediate validation of web site content itself. They require software to be present in the machines of the end users to act on behalf of the user to carry out checks that the user can be prevented for doing themselves by competent fraudsters.

They also require competent registration procedures for Internet traders to make it more difficult for a fraudster to enter the system and pretend to be genuine. Such registration procedures are claimed to be in place for SSL.

One of the most important international developments for defining security behaviour has been the adoption of the international standard ISO 17799 Code of Practice for Information Security Management. It is a comprehensive management standard for addressing the full range of issues for protecting information. Sensible adoption and application of the standard could provide significant benefits both to business and consumers. Self regulation schemes would do well to consider adopting it as a means of providing a common frame of reference for security and privacy claims.

Solutions to help user understanding

Web site design

The basic approaches to developing and designing Internet many web sites are based upon ease of implementation for the web site consistent with current ‘fashion’ for both appearance and implementing the latest technology. The user security experience is largely of unexplained transitions to web site addresses that do not relate to where they started. That contradicts the user’s real world experience and actually promotes fraud potential by forcing the user to either accept inconsistency or ignore it. Both positions mean the fraudster can insert his version of reality without ready detection.

The move to adding unexplained popup windows, unexplained other windows, moving information and other similar features have to be contrasted with the user confusion of the site he or she is dealing with and the fraud potential that brings. Also the introduction of monitoring software and similar programs can only increase the level of fundamental mistrust the user has in the Internet. From a domestic user point of view this is little short of hacking. So how do you know the good guys from the bad?

Remaking the presence of entire sites overnight contradicts the physical world where change has to be announced and is very evolutionary. It happens in slow time where regular customers build up acceptance and experience. Trying to educate users to live with rapid change is creating cultural change in Japan where new product takeup rates are reducing rapidly.

Security presentation

Security information needs to be proactive and tangible. Security solutions that rely upon static logos or that require the user to perform specific actions and then carry out manual checks of their own are flawed. Physical world checks do not work that way so there is no transfer of experience to the Internet.

Security information goes far beyond making claims about ’40 bit SSL’ technology. In the physical world you know where the store is and it can’t move rapidly. The location of an Internet site is less than clear. Provable information is needed to show the trading address of the business, real contact information, governing law and an effective link from that to any transaction being undertaken.

Security information must be considered when transactions fail to complete just as much as when they succeed. In the physical world the user can see when a transaction has not completed, but the Internet lacks that visual experience. Forms that reset without explanation, or fail for reasons that are not explained fully on them, contribute to the inability of a user to detect fraud taking place. Such techniques are commonly used by fraudsters to gain information.

Does the law help users

Considerable efforts are being made by law enforcement agencies to prevent fraud (any many other criminal or civil wrongs) using the Internet and to prosecute wherever possible. Data protection, whether stemming from the European Directive, Human Rights, the US Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), seems to have enjoyed less visible action, although that information is needed in addition to credit card information in order to commit Internet frauds such as identity theft.

The problem the law faces is created by the nonnational nature of the Internet, and the national nature of law. Even if there are suitable offences, being able to proceed successfully is difficult, and for the ordinary consumer rather daunting. For the consumer, producing available evidence long after a fraud has been detected is also problematic. The situation is further confused by the desire of valid industry to collect as much consumer information as possible something the fraudster also wants, but for different reasons.

One also has to be careful that law is not used instead of industry action. Making something an offence does not mean that nothing need be done. The recent US Digital Millennium Act is perceived by some as preventing the exposing of inadequate security mechanisms. Given that the user is actually the one exposed by security inadequacies, careful consideration needs to be given over user reaction to such a situation.

Conclusions

Internet fraud has two distinct strands to it.

One results from the differences between doing business in the physical world and the dematerialized world of the Internet. This gap has been accentuated by the ‘world of the Internet’ to the point where the user has no conventional reference points. This leaves the user ill placed to make adequate judgments of any kind, not merely about security and the possibility of fraud.

The other results from technical inadequacies in the infrastructure used by the service providers. Lack of clear regulation has allowed registration practices to develop that are not acceptable anywhere else for doing business. Previously available security mechanisms have been implemented in ways that fail to protect the user and which require, if followed, unreasonable user effort and significant user education.

Mechanisms such as the law may be able to provide some assistance, but care needs to be taken that the law is not used as an excuse for inadequate business practices. It would be sensible to ensure that a duty of care to implement best practice is included in legislation to expose any who have failed to protect themselves, their shareholders or their customers. Self regulation is another essential approach, but it must avoid becoming all self and no regulation if it is to carry real conviction to a suspicious user community, and its practices must be clear, obvious and understandable to the ordinary man. The paper world has already done this so wheel reinventing is not required.

The introduction of new technologies places responsibilities upon their implementers. The developers have a responsibility to get it technically right. The implementers have a responsibility to deal with its social and cultural dimensions, and cannot stand back and ignore these. Professional web site design carries a great deal more responsibility than merely sorting out key words, search terms and a site map.

References:

Web spoofing allows an attacker to create a กshadow copyก of the entire site. www.cs.princeton.edu/sip/pub/spoofing.html

Spoofing the Whole Web. www.bau2.uibk.ac.at/matic/spoofing.htm

What is web spoofing? www.nmrc.org/faqs/hackfaq/hackfaq9.html

Dartmouth PKI Lab Web Spoofing Demonstration www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~pkilab/demos/spoofing/index.shtml

Some Web spoofing may be noticeable, so it is helpful to keep these tips in mind: www.washington.edu/computing/windows/issue22/spoofing.html

Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Web spoofing allows an attacker to create a กshadow copyก of the entire World Wide Web. Accesses to the shadow Web www.secinf.net/info/www/security16.txt

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA is being used to silence researchers, computer scientists and critics. www.antidmca.org

Provisions in Chapter 12 of the US Copyright Act, enacted in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (กDMCAก) must be repealed or struck down as unconstitutional www.petitiononline.com/nixdmca/petition.html

The New York lawsuit appears to be the first to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to try to restrict a computer program www.wired.com/news/politics

Authentication Who’s Site Is It Really? by ArticSoft www.articsoft.com/wp_authentication.htm

The Changing Face of Web Security by ArticSoft www.articsoft.com/wp_changingface.htm

Credit Card Fraud, Link to Top Ten Home Page. The Bait: Surf the Internet and view adult images www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/dotcon/credit.htm

Credit card fraud hit 1 in 20 users. And identity theft hit 1 in 50 during past year, study shows. By Bob Sullivan MSNBC. www.msnbc.com/news/718115.asp

Around 900,000 victims across 22 countries. The biggest credit card fraud ever. Fraudulent credit card transactions generated using adult web site merchant. www.faughnan.com/ccfraud.html

5.2 percent of respondents saying theyกd been victimized by credit card fraud in 2001 and 1.9 percent said theyกd been victimized by identity theft www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/03/04/fraud.online.survey/

ISO 17799 (2000) references may be found at www.bsiglobal.com and at www.xisec.comm

About The Author

ArticSoft (www.articsoft.com) have over 30 years experience in the field of computer security, and 15 years experience of securing information on personal computers and messaging systems. Our CEO Steve Mathews, is one of the authors of BS7799 (now ISO/IEC 17799) and is well recognized in the security industry.

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 28, 2003

by Articsoft

Googleกs Wonderland: Trouble In Paradise?

Googleกs Wonderland: Trouble In Paradise?

by: Dean Phillips

The fairy tale existance of Google is starting to experience shockwaves.

So, whatกs the source of these shockwaves? Click fraud. As my readers know, Iกve written several articles on the subject of click fraud, suggesting that since itกs the market leader, Google should take a more proactive approach with the problem of click fraud.

Until now, Google has been mostly quiet about the subject, issuing this single statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission:

กWe are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members.ก

So, why isn’t Google doing more about click fraud? In one of my articles, I theorized that with the amount of money involved, itกs actually more cost effective for Google to issue an occasional refund to its advertisers, than to develop technology to eliminate click fraud.

That theory was echoed in a recent article, in which the author wrote:

กGoogleกs primary defense against click fraud has been to refund advertisers their money if they complain and Google sees evidence that fraudulent clicks have occured. The problem with this is that the burden of proof is on the advertiser … and Google knows that most advertisers will not take the time to argue. Therefore, Google has a financial incentive not to deal with click fraud on their own. It not only costs them to deal with the problem but if they do find a solution to stopping click fraud … it will cost Google much more when they don’t get paid for 20 percent or more of their clicks.ก

However, all of that may be about to change. At an investor conference last Wednesday, Google CFO George Reyes stated:

กI think something has to be done about this really, really quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business model.ก

My question is this: What took Google so long to come to that realization? Itกs not like click fraud just magically appeared yesterday. The media has been reporting on the problem for at least the last 3 years.

Smug in its ivory tower, did Google think the problem was just going to go away by itself? Or was it waiting for Overture or one of the smaller payperclick companies to solve the problem, so it wouldn’t have to deal with it?

These are troubling questions, to say the least. Even more troubling is Googleกs passive approach to a serious problem, which in my opinion has been reprehensible.

It should be interesting to see what Googleกs next move is. Google CFO George Reyes statement notwithstanding, Iกll believe Google is serious about eliminating click fraud, when I finally see it!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: [email protected].

Visit his website at: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on December 07, 2004

by Dean Phillips

PayPerClick Fraud Exposed

PayPerClick Fraud Exposed

by: Dean Phillips

Has anyone else noticed a disturbing pattern in your payperclick advertising campaign, of the same IP addresses clicking on your ad, spending one or two seconds on your website and then leaving?

Thatกs called click fraud and itกs a major problem among all of the payperclick search engines.

Click fraud is a scheme that takes advantage of online advertising programs like those offered by Google, Yahoo/Overture, Findwhat and others. A fraudulent website is set up and participates in programs like Googleกs AdSense program. Unlike legitimate websites that attract human visitors to the site, fraudsters use software กhitbotsก or employ boilerrooms of lowwage employees from other countries to generate clicks on ads, and then collect commission from payperclick programs.

In June, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Michael Anthony Bradley 32, of Oak Park California who was charged with fraud and extortion for a scheme involving Googleกs payperclick program. Believe it or not, Bradley actually tried to extort Google into paying $100,000 for click fraud software he created called กGoogle Clique.ก

Click fraud hurts advertisers by driving up the cost of each click because many online advertising programs adjust the price of each click based on the popularity of a particular keyword and the number of competing advertisers. And depending on how popular your keyword is, it can take just a few minutes to register hundreds of clicks. Click fraud can quickly deplete your payperclick account and leave you with little or nothing to show for your expentiture.

In a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google acknowledged, กWe are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members.ก

Now, in all fairness to the payperclick companies Iกve used in the past, I have to give credit where credit is due. Whenever I complained of click fraud, which was often, all of the payperclick companies, without exception, did the right thing and credited the stolen funds back into to my account. Ironically, I have not had a click fraud problem with Google.

You can reduce your risk of being victimized by click fraud, by regularly auditing your website’s log files and immediately reporting suspicious traffic to the payperclick companies. If you are unfamiliar with analyzing your site’s log files, there are some excellent software products available to assist you like ClickTracks, WebTrends, and AWStats. These products make it fairly easy to identify patterns in your websiteกs traffic.

Recently, I noticed the same IP number clicking on my ad over and over againoften many times within just a few minutes. I did some basic detective work and discovered it was actually a competitor of mine devouring my payperclick dollars. I approached him with my findings and threatened him with law enforcement intervention, if he didn’t cease and desist. He denied any involvement, of course. But I haven’t had any problems with that individual since.

So, how did I find out who the culprit was? Easy.

When checking your log files, if you notice a lot of clicks from one IP address, you can trace its origin by visiting the American Registry of Internet Numbers. By feeding the IP address into their กWhoisก search, they will tell you who has been assigned that IP address, and whether itกs an actual IP or another business entity.

Should the IP address not be assigned to the Americas, you can verify RIPE Network Coordination Center for all Russian, European, and Middle Eastern registries, or the Asia Pacific Network Information Center. There are only three such sites, so you should be able to track the source.

However, if someone is using sophisticated software to generate clicks on your ad, it will probably be impossible for you to trace the IP address yourself. For example, according to alleged Google extortionist, Michael Bradley, กHolland Engine software was originaly written to allow spammers to conceal their orginating IP address from mailservers and to keep it from apearing in email headers.

Holland Engine is the core of LincolnSX, the most powerful massemailing software, running at rates of 5 million e mails per day per machine. Holland Engine will actually tunnel through the internet and connect to the desired IP address from, not your IP but rather from another, the one at the end of the tunnel.ก

In conclusion, if you choose to use payperclick search engines to advertise, watch your log files closely and report improprieties immediately.

Also don’t put all of your eggs into one basket, by depending solely on payperclick advertising. Utilize a variety of ways to attract traffic to your website, such as ezines, newsletters, writing articles, offline advertising, etc.

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: [email protected]

Make Money Online! Internet marketing expert, Dean Phillips will help you make money online, starting today…Guaranteed! For details just visit my website.

Website: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on September 27, 2004

by Dean Phillips

The Warning Signs Of Online Fraud and How To Avoid

The Warning Signs Of Online Fraud and How To Avoid It

by: Donald Lee

The number may seem grim for Webbased commerce. In 2004 in the Unites States alone, computer users logged in more than 207,000 Internet fraud reports to the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center. If you look hard at this number, you may be astounded, and a good bit frightened, by the implication. You may ask, ขIs it really safe to buy and sell at an online site?ข

Put simply, the answer is: yes. The Internet is an incredibly powerful tool for business, so you can’t pass it over just because of a few crooks and conmen—even if they do seem like they’re behind every popup window and banner ad. The truth is that you can create opportunity and make more money online than you could lose in fraud.

Better yet, you could lose absolutely nothing if you know the warning signs of fraud and the tricks to avoid danger during your Webbased business dealings.

Whether you’re looking to buy or sell goods online, the first—and the best—way to fight fraud is prevention. There are certain warning signs to watch for, which should set off a chorus of alarms and flashing red lights in your head. Don’t do business with this person! For buyers, these potential warning signs can be when a seller:

asks you to pay through nontraceable avenues, such as Western Union or MoneyGram, or a third party, or via an overseas address. You should ask yourself—and the seller—why he or she won’t accept payment options that are traceable and convenient for you.

posts an image on his auction or classified ad that’s obviously from an outside source. Sometimes these images may not even match the type of item, let alone the brand, that the ad features.

sells a typically expensive item at cutrate prices, which is a good indicator that it could be counterfeit.

refuses to provide tracking numbers when you purchase an item. Tracking numbers are another way to trace a valid transaction.

offers only excuses, instead of help, when your purchased item doesn’t arrive at your doorstep.

If you’re a seller, you ought to be wary of signs of a suspicious buyer, such as when a buyer:

asks to pay only some of the fee, offering to the pay the rest sometime in the future. This is the old excuse from Popeye’s friend Wimpy, who always could be heard saying, ขIกll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.ข Wimpy never paid Tuesday.

sends you a cashier’s check for more money than the agreed price ขby mistake.ข In this scam, the buyer then asks you to repay him the difference by personal check, wire transfer, or money order—before you find out that the cashier’s check didn’t clear. Believe it or not, this scheme works because cashier’s checks can be cashed before they bounce.

sends you a cashier’s check for the correct amount of money but then demands a refund, requesting that you repay with your own money. See the scheme above for how this trick works.

These warning signs, of course, are only for a handful of the frauds and scams out there. Conmen are good at what they do, trying to separate you from your money. That’s why it’s best to always follow these golden rules of online commerce whenever buying or selling on an Internet auction or classified site.

Keep your common sense. No matter how good a deal seems, or how much clients say they want to pay, always remember the old adage: ขIf it sounds too good to be true….ข

Do your business locally. Try to buy and sell from your neighbors as much as possible. It’s safer, more convenient, and better for your local economy. What’s more, it saves you the trouble of dealing with foreign vendors and buyers. Though they may be legit, dealing with them can be complicated because of different legal systems and customs, which can make any conflict difficult.

Seal the deal with plastic. Paying for items with credit cards, and allowing your customers to charge for purchases, is a great allaround business decision. Under U.S. law, all plastic purchases are protected from fraud and allowed to be disputed in case of problems.

Meet at the middle man. Intermediary services are virtual middle men that protect both buyers and sellers from cyber shysters. Services like Escrow act as a holding pen for both payment and sale items until both the buyer and seller are content. Only then will Escrow finish a transaction.

Purchase with PayPal. As Escrow and credit cards do, PayPal guards against fraud for both buyers and sellers. It’s a secure and reliable way to transfer money over the Internet. No wonder PayPal is the most popular online money transfer service.

As you can see, the odds are actually in your favor when it comes to doing business on online classified or auction sites. The resource of the internet is far too valuable than to be taken away by a few crooks and conmen. It simply comes down to being smart, sensible, and observant whenever buying or selling on the Web. Then again, that’s what all good business is about, whether you’re doing it in a mall or on the information superhighway.

About The Author

Donald Lee is the public relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com. Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services for individuals and businesses to market their products and services online. For global and localized classifieds, please visit http://www.buysellcommunity.com Free Buy & Sell Classifieds.

This article was posted on February 27

by Donald Lee

Resources Ensuring You Never Get Scammed

Resources Ensuring You Never Get Scammed

by: Trent Brownrigg

The internet is loaded with SCAMS aimed at taking as much money from you as possible in the shortest amount of time. With so many innocent people trying to find a great opportunity to work at home it’s easy for scam artists to draw you in with the promise of riches.

Fortunately, there are resources available for you to check with to help ensure that you are not helping a scam artist to get rich by throwing away your hard earned money.

There are quite a few of these opportunity ขregulatorsข as I like to call them. Use these resources to investigate an opportunity before you get involved and/or send any money:

1) Federal Trade Commission (http://www.ftc.gov):

The FTC has a lot of information for businesses and consumers. You can check out things such as the top 10 consumer fraud complaints, workathome schemes, your legal rights, and much more. You can also file a complaint if you have already had a problem.

2) Better Business Bureau (http://www.bbb.org):

The BBB is a very well known and reliable resource for checking out businesses. They provide information on over 2 million organizations. You can find reliability reports on organizations as well as a lot of other helpful information. As with the FTC you can also file a complaint at the BBB if you need to.

3) Scambusters (http://www.scambusters.org/):

These guys claim to be the #1 Publication on Internet Fraud. You can find a wealth of information and resources on this site aimed at avoiding scams and fraud. They also offer links to other sites that may be helpful.

4) Internet Trade Bureau (http://www.internettradebureau.com/):

The ITB was formed to help promote fair business practices on the internet. They offer site reviews, and tracking of consumer complaints. They do not retain any members who get complaints.

5) ScamWatch (http://www.scamwatch.com/):

These guys offer a scam directory, a list of things to watch out for, scam reports, most likely scams, and more. There is a lot of information on this site designed to prevent you from being scammed.

You can also check with these organizations:

http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

http://www.quatloos.com/

http://www.webpolice.org/

http://www.dsa.org/

http://www.fraud.org/

Here’s a list of email addresses for you to report scams, fraud, and spam:

Email the FTC to report กget rich quickก spam email scams: [email protected]

Internet Fraud Center at [email protected]

National Fraud Information Center email: [email protected]

Email address of the US Postal Inspection Service where all กChain Letterก spam email scams should be sent: [email protected] and [email protected]

As you can see there are plenty of resources available to you so you should be able to check out any money making opportunity very thoroughly to ensure your safety. The above list is by no means all the organizations you can check with but they are some very reliable resources. If you find an opportunity listed in the scam or fraud section, of any of the above sites, I would highly recommend staying away from it.

Remember, there are many legitimate opportunities for you to choose from. Working at home has tons of rewards, so don’t give up on your dreams just because you are afraid of getting scammed. Do your homework on any opportunity you are pursuing and you should be fine.

Now, go and find yourself a legitimate business opportunity to secure your financial destiny!

Copyright © 2004

Trent Brownrigg http://workathomejobsiowa.com

About The Author

Trent Brownrigg is a successful home business entrepreneur, webmaster, and author of work at home articles. Learn more at: http://www.workathomejobsiowa.com. Find great products & services for your home, business, and family here: http://quickinfo247.com/8198358

This article was posted on February 11, 2004

by Trent Brownrigg

Don’t be a Victim of Online Auction Fraud

Don’t be a Victim of Online Auction Fraud

by: Stephen Bucaro

The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) reported that last year 7.7 million dollars was lost through online auction scams. The actual losses are much greater. Most auction scams are not reported because they involve only small amounts of money.

Most auction Web sites are aggressive at fighting fraud. eBay has a fraud investigation unit that has helped them hold down fraud to only .01% of its transactions. If you paid for an item and never received it, or if you received the item but it was less than what was described, eBayกs Fraud Protection Program will reimburse you up to $200, minus a $25 processing charge. In order to qualify for Fraud Protection coverage, you must submit an Online Fraud Complaint with eBay after 30 days and before 60 days from the time the auction ended.

After making a purchase, buyers can leave feedback about their experience with the seller. Before you bid on an item, check the sellerกs feedback profile by clicking on the number next to the their User ID. There is also a feedback forum and discussion board.

Below are a few actions that you should take to protect yourself from Internet auction fraud.

For a high cost item use an escrow service.

Avoid sellers who request payment by electronic transfer.

Never provide your Social Security Number or Drivers License Number.

Verify the delivery data and the sellers return policy.

Review the online feedback on a seller.

If the seller is a business, check with the Better Business Bureau www.bbb.org.

Prefer sellers who accept credit card payments. When you use a credit card to pay for a purchase, federal law limits your liability for an unauthorized charge to $50. You can also request your credit card issuer to make a chargeback.

Be cautious about buying from a seller in another country. If you buy from a seller in another country, understand the difference in laws governing auctions between that country and the US.

If you become a victim of Internet auction fraud, you can submit a complaint report with an online form at the IFCC Web site www.ifccfbi.gov. The IFCC will review your complaint and refer it to the proper law enforcement agency.

Internet Auction fraud is a large and growing problem. Take the measures outlined above to prevent yourself from becoming a victim.

Copyright(C)2004 Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

Stephen Bucaro

To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp

This article was posted on August 27, 2004

by Stephen Bucaro

Pay Per Click Advertising Can Be Very Risky Busine

Pay Per Click Advertising Can Be Very Risky Business

by: Kirk Bannerman

Click fraud is an unfortunate byproduct of the pay per click advertising business. Many people with an online business spend large amounts of money on pay per click advertising only to discover that many of the people clicking on their ads weren’t really interested in their products or services.

Bogus กvisitorsก to a pay per click ad represent click fraud. This is a serious scam that threatens the viability of the pay per click advertising business which has become enormously profitable for all of the major search engine operators, namely Google, Yahoo/Overture, and MSN.

Click fraud has different forms, but the end result is generally the same. Advertisers are billed for fruitless traffic generated by someone who repeatedly clicks on an advertiserกs ad without any intention of ever buying anything.

The search engine advertising market is currently about $3.8 billion per year and estimates vary widely on how much click fraud is actually going on. Clearly, the search engine operators would like to downplay the extent of this problem. Some industry experts claim that a little click fraud exists but that it is overblown by advertiser paranoia, while others estimate that ten to twenty percent of all clicks are false (made by someone with no legitimate interest in the ad itself).

Virtually everyone involved with pay per click advertising sees click fraud and knows itกs there, but no one is quite sure what to do about it.

Both Google and Yahoo/Overture acknowledge that the click fraud problem exists, but claim improved internal controls will prevent the problem from escalating. Their stated position seems to be that they are concerned about click fraud, but that it is not a material issue so far. Both of them are touting their increasing internal actions aimed at detecting and combating click fraud.

Such reassurances from search engine companies certainly aren’t surprising, given how much they stand to lose if advertisers cut back on advertising spending. The stakes are huge and the search engine companies are actively involved in public relations campaigns. Industry research firm eMarketer expects $7.4 billion to be spent on search engine advertising by 2008, up from only $108.5 million back in 2000.

The incentives for click fraud have increased along with the money devoted to search engine advertising. Advertising on search engines has turned into a fastspreading craze as more and more marketers have realized substantially higher returns on search engine ads than on more traditional marketing campaigns conducted through print media.

Most pay per click advertisers set a spending limit and once the spending limit is reached, the ads cease to appear in the search results. Click fraud is a very unethical competitive tactic where someone repeatedly clicks on a competitorกs ad until the spending limit is reached and the ad then disappears from the search results. It seems that itกs only a matter of time before some advertisers become so exasperated with click fraud that they file a classaction lawsuit against a major search engine.

The success of search engine advertising has substantially raised prices that advertisers pay for top spots. Unfortunately, these higher prices have turned click fraud into a dark little industry of its own. Some crooks have hired cheap overseas contractors to just sit in front of computers and constantly click on targeted ads and others are developing sophisticated software to help automate and conceal click fraud.

If you use pay per click advertising it would be wise to carefully monitor your traffic to determine if you are the victim of click fraud. In any event, itกs probably safe to say that pay per click advertisers are going to have to accept a certain level of click fraud as just a cost of doing business.

About The Author

Kirk Bannerman operates his own successful home based business and also coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. For more information visit his website at http://www.businessathome.us.

This article was posted on February 14

by Kirk Bannerman

Wimpy Google and Michael Jackson: Birds Of A Feath

Wimpy Google and Michael Jackson: Birds Of A Feather

by: Dean Phillips

Google Inc. is suing a Houstonbased company for allegedly clicking on sponsored links to fraudulently boost advertising revenues.

Google filed a lawsuit two weeks ago in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California against Auctions Expert International LLC. Google is accusing Auctions Expert of abusing the Google AdSense program, in which web publishers display Googleกs payperclick ads and receive a share of the revenues.

Auctions Expert joined AdSense in August 2003, according to the lawsuit. Google later discovered the alleged misconduct, terminating the contract between the companies and refunding advertisers, Googleกs complaint states.

‘these clicks were worthless to advertisers but generated significant and unjust revenue for Defendants who were paid by Google as if the clicks were legitimate,ก the lawsuit states.

Google is seeking an unspecified amount of damages and restitution for the revenueshare payments it had made to Auctions Expert, according to the lawsuit.

Google spokesman Steve Langdon said that the Mountain View, Calif., company uses fraud detection technology to combat click fraud and protect advertisers.

‘this lawsuit against Auctions Expert demonstrates the success of our antifraud system and that we will take legal action when appropriate,ก he said in a statement.

Talk about your alltime wimpy statements. Iกm not impressed. All Google did was exercise its right to file a lawsuit. The same right any of us have. Somebody shoot off the fireworks. Woo hoo! Thatกs some scary stuff right there!

Iกm still waiting for Google to flex its considerable muscle. I want to hear a powerful statement from a powerful company. Something to the effect:

กNothing is more important to us than our customers. They helped make us who we are today, and we will not let them down. We are determined to meet and defeat click fraud head onno matter how how long it takes or how much it ultimately costs!ก

But it will never happen. Why? Because despite its considerable power, Google is a lot like Michael Jackson in some ways. Let me explain:

At one time Michael Jackson was the biggest, most powerful star on the planet. However, as we soon discovered, he was also a wimp who was out of touch with reality.

I view Google the same way. Google is the biggest, most powerful search engine on the planet. But the way its handling click fraud is wimpish and shows itกs out of touch with reality also. These are criminals we’re talking about here. They’re not afraid of a silly lawsuit.

Google needs to get with the program and develop a กgangstaก attitude. Hold a worldwide press conference and tell these punk click fraud thieves in no uncertain hip hop terms:

กYo, dog, let me holla at you for a second. We are Google, yo. We are the biggest, baddest, most powerful search engine on the planet, yo. Peep this: Do NOT steal from us or our homeyกs, fool. Me and my posse have the means, the resources and the resolve to hunt you down like the punks you are 24, 7 and bust a cap in your ass! Peace…we out!ก

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: [email protected]

Visit his website at: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on December 02, 2004

by Dean Phillips