Online ad revenue at risk in war on ‘click fraud’
Spurred by a warning in December by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) that businesses are losing $6.3 billion a year to so-called “click fraud,” these companies now stipulate in advertising contracts that they will only pay for online ads when given proof that humans clicked on them. “We don't want to be paying for non-human traffic,” said Mark Clowes, global head of advertising at American International Group Inc , the largest commercial insurer in the country. In a typical click fraud scheme, a crook infects many computers with malicious software, and directs the machines – called bots – to visit a webpage, click on an ad or watch a video
