51 results about "Click fraud" patented technology

This invention is a real-time system that detects click fraud and blocks those click fraud. This system will be used as an arbitration system to evaluate the quality of every click referred from PPC publishers, thus helping advertiser saving money. The invention uses innovative matching between two logs, client side log and server side log, to find out software click and detect abnormal activities, such as no mouse movement, no mouse clicks, repeat clicks etc. The system includes three parts working cooperatively: a database for logging user click parameter and reporting click fraud, web servers with filter program such as ISAPI filter, CGI or other server side script program, and tracking code inserted to a web page, executed on client computer. The system can also block any fraudulent traffic in real time.

Systems and methods for detecting instances of click fraud are disclosed. Click fraud occurs when, for example, a user, malware, bot, or the like, clicks on a pay per click advertisement (e.g., hyperlink), a paid search listing, or the like without a good faith interest in the underlying subject of the hyperlink. Such fraudulent clicks can be expensive for an advertising sponsor. Statistical information, such as ratios of unpaid clicks to pay per clicks, are extracted from an event database. The statistical information of global data is used as a reference data set to compare to similar statistical information for a local data set under analysis. In one embodiment, when the statistical data sets match relatively well, no click fraud is determined to have occurred, and when the statistical data sets do not match relatively well, click fraud is determined to have occurred.

Webcrawlers and scraper bots are detrimental because they place a significant processing burden on web servers, corrupt traffic metrics, use excessive bandwidth, excessively load web servers, create spam, cause ad click fraud, encourage unauthorized linking, deprive the original collector / poster of the information of exclusive rights to analysis and summarize information posted on their own site, and enable anyone to create low-cost Internet advertising network products for ultimate sellers. A scaleable predictive service distributed in the cloud can be used to detect scraper activity in real time and take appropriate interdictive access up to and including denial of service based on the likelihood that non-human agents are responsible for accesses. Information gathered from a number of servers can be aggregated to provide real time interdiction protecting a number of disparate servers in a network.

The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism that facilitates a new advertising architecture in the advertising space, e.g., for ranking publishers of ads and / or mitigating click-fraud. A mechanism is provided to confirm transactions that occur between a customer and a merchant as well as an indication of which ad publisher made the referral. Accordingly, the performance of an ad displayed by a publisher can be assessed, and, e.g., employed in the pricing scheme for displaying the ad. The ad publisher performance ratio can be relative to other ad publishers and can be employed with a pay-per-click, pay-per impression, or other similar billing structures.

A method for determining whether clicks on results in a search are fraudulent is provided. The method includes monitoring a pattern of clicks on links presented to a user as a result of a search request by the user; and conducting additional analysis of the links clicked on by the user if the monitored pattern of clicks falls within pre-determined parameters. A second method of detecting click fraud is also provided. The method includes: monitoring links clicked on by a user; adjusting search results presented to a user in response to a user's search when the user clicks on links associated with the search results in a pattern that fall within pre-determined parameters.

Detecting click fraud at a user device involves detecting a event targeted to a network service that is rated based on the number of individuals who access the network service. The event is of a type associated with user interface selections. It is determined whether the user device is in a low-power state contemporaneously with the detection of the event. The event is caused to be disregarded for the purposes of rating the network service based on a determination that the user device was in the low power state contemporaneously with the detection of the event.

Methods of detecting potential click fraud are provided in which information relating to a click on an Internet advertisement is received. A measured location of a source of the click is also received. The source of the click may be identified as potentially fraudulent based at least in part on the received information and the measured location of the source. Methods of identifying potentially fraudulent activations of Internet advertisements and related systems and computer program products are also provided.

A method for detecting click fraud. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of: directing a user to an item but delaying the internal ratings update of the item; collecting data to build a model of the user; building the model of the user in response to the collected data; determining the trustworthiness of the user in response to the model of the user; and updating internal ratings of the item in response to the trustworthiness of the user. In various embodiments, the click fraud can be the inflation of advertisement clicks, the inflation of popularity or the inflation of reputation.

Detecting click fraud that includes a processing device that receives data related to a cursor movement towards an advertisement displayed on a web page. The processing device analyzes the cursor movement data and determines a confidence level useable in the determination of click fraud, the confidence level responsive to the analysis of the cursor movement. The received data includes data that the cursor on the web page has transited at least one pixel cluster on the web page prior to a clicking the advertisement. In one embodiment, a click fraud is detected when the click occurred without the cursor crossing a pixel cluster, and no click fraud occurring when the click occurred after the cursor crossed a pixel cluster.

A system and method for detecting click fraud where data is received corresponding to a tracking of movement of a cursor on a web page. The movement of the cursor is associated with at least one vector. The at least one vector represents at least a portion of the cursor movement. A confidence level useable in the determination of click fraud is determined. The confidence level is responsive to analysis of the at least one vector representing at least a portion of the cursor movement.

An ad server system takes into consideration information about a user who clicks on an ad in determining whether to charge the advertiser for the click event, and / or in determining an amount to charge the advertiser. In one embodiment, unless the user is recognized, the advertiser is not charged for the ad selection event. Thus, advertisers do not have to pay the ad placement provider when the users who click on their ads are not recognized. If the user is recognized, the ad server system may determine whether and / or how much to charge the advertiser based on information about the recognized user. This information may include, for example, whether the user has set up an account, whether a valid credit card is on file for the user, and / or other types of user information that can be used to hold fraudulent users accountable for their actions.

Machine learning techniques are employed to build and evolve classifiers (e.g., decision trees or other rule-based classifiers) which generate scores representing confidence values associated with particular paths through a classifier (rather than discrete class labels), and then compare those scores to tunable thresholds to effect classification.

Non human entities such as automated web crawlers or malicious click-fraud programs can skew the tracking of clicks on web site advertisements. Thus, it is desirable to filter out page views caused by such automated entities. To achieve this goal, a web site may interject an intermediate web page after a web viewer selects an advertising link but before the web viewer is sent to the advertiser's designated web site. The intermediate web page allows for a response from the web viewer. The system then analyzes the web viewer's response to the intermediate web page (if any) along with other information using an adjustable testing policy to make a determination as to whether the web viewer is a human or non-human entity. An adjustable interject policy may be used to determine if an interjection should occur after a web viewer has selected an advertisement and before the web viewer is directed to the advertiser's designated web site. In this manner, the number of web viewers that are subjected to the intermediate web page is reduced.

Described herein are techniques to combat ad fraud, in which a client device is determined to be trustworthy or not trustworthy, and ads from an ad server are only provided to a client device that is determined to be trustworthy. As a result, client devices that have been infected with malware and ordinarily would have performed various forms of ad fraud (e.g., ad stacking, click fraud) receive no ads and are precluded from performing ad fraud. A proxy device within an ISP network may monitor all network traffic to and from the client device. Information useful in determining the trustworthiness of client device may be collected from the proxy device by an analysis server, which may use various indicators of trust in order to ascertain the trustworthiness of the client device.

Search engine click fraud can be combated by a new Click Per Action method. This uses a plug-in in a browser to detect when a transaction has occurred at an advertiser's website. Here the user was directed to that advertiser by a link on a search engine's web page. Since the plug-in is independent of the advertiser, it greatly reduces the danger to the search engine that the advertiser will underreport the number and amount of transactions that were sent to it from the search engine. While the avoidance of the current Cost Per Click method reduces the click fraud suffered by current advertisers. The method can be deployed incrementally, and in conjunction with existing CPC methods.

A click fraud prevention system and method that analyzes click patterns across multiple search engines and integrates with a website advertising management system that manages advertisements and bids across multiple search engines.

A system and method is disclosed for providing targeted advertising for association with retrieved content on media, such as the Internet or World Wide Web, in such a way that it is not susceptible to click fraud. This system and method are directed to a “pay for share” system that provides billing before targeted advertisements are made available for selection for display.

Detecting click fraud that includes a client device capable of accessing a server hosting a web page containing an advertisement. The client device includes a network interface allowing access to the server and code on the client device. The code accesses and displays a web page containing an advertisement, provides mechanisms (e.g., an applet, an ActiveX control, a plugin, a JavaScript, a browser scripting language, browser extensions, or code native to the browser) associated with each pixel cluster where each mechanism captures information regarding the transit of the pixel cluster by a cursor on the web page, and collects information based on the capturing by each associated mechanism regarding the transit of the pixel cluster by a cursor on the web page.

Embodiments of the invention provide a fraud prevention method for a pay-per-click data processing system. The method can include receiving a click through for a link in a host site which references a marketed site. The method also can include identifying a link address for the link in the click through. The method yet further can include comparing the identified link address to a modified link address recorded for an actual link address for the marketed site. Finally, the method can include quashing the click through if the identified link address is not the modified link address. Conversely, the method can include redirecting the click through to the marketed site if the identified link address is the modified link address.

A method and system provides the ability to identify phone numbers and alphanumeric sequences in a text source such as a web page and format them and / or convert them into usable information. According to one aspect, the invention automatically identifies and formats phone numbers in web pages so that they can be automatically dialed using VoIP or PSTN phone services. According to other aspects, the formatted phone number can be provided to any network voice applications, such as voice-over IP (VOIP) solutions, voice chat, voice IM, and wireless, WiFi, and WiMax connections. According to additional aspects, the invention can be integrated with internet browsing applications to allow automatic dialing of phone numbers over VOIP services or PSTN services. According to still other aspects, the invention allows technical support, electronic commerce, customer support numbers, phone numbers for product ordering, etc., on company web pages to be identified and dialed with a mouse click. According to yet other aspects, a search engine provider using the invention can charge an advertiser for phone calls placed to the advertiser, which are far more valuable than “clicks” on advertiser links, thereby reducing the “click fraud” problem afflicting current search engine technology.

A method for detecting click fraud. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of: directing a user to an item but delaying the internal ratings update of the item; collecting data to build a model of the user; building the model of the user in response to the collected data; determining the trustworthiness of the user in response to the model of the user; and updating internal ratings of the item in response to the trustworthiness of the user. In various embodiments, the click fraud can be the inflation of advertisement clicks, the inflation of popularity or the inflation of reputation.

A method and system that allows advertisers to bid for favorable placement of their ads relative to other advertisers, over a given time period and at a fixed cost. The provider of said system solicits ads from advertisers via an electronic interface. The advertisers provide ad copy, indicate how much they are willing to spend (ad price) for a given time period and then submit this information to the provider's servers. The ads appear, sorted by ad price, when potential customers submit search engine queries against a database of information which includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the ad copy submitted by the advertisers. Unlike pay-per-click or other pay-per-[action] systems, this invention is immune to click fraud and other types of end user fraud including automated fraud.

The invention discloses a directional advertisement spreading method based on search engines. The prior advertisement spread cannot perform matching precisely; a plurality of advertisement forms such as ranking by competitive price, etc. can realize favorable matching, but the advertiser can only passively wait until visits of potential clients, and the search engine manufactures cannot effectively solves the problem of click frauds. To solve the problems, the presents invention comprises the following procedures that: (1) the data of clients providing transaction information is collected and managed; catching transaction seeking information with corresponding data from the internet; (2) the transaction information provided by the clients is drawn, corresponding data containing transaction seeking information with the demand caught from the internet is looked for, and then advertisements with the transaction information provided by the clients as the content is sent to the corresponding data of the transaction seeking information. The invention can help spreaders to generalize products or services with extremely strong direction and low cost and, besides, can conveniently solve the demands of advertisement receivers in time.

Methods of detecting potential click fraud are provided in which information relating to a click on an Internet advertisement is received. A measured location of a source of the click is also received. The source of the click may be identified as potentially fraudulent based at least in part on the received information and the measured location of the source. Methods of identifying potentially fraudulent activations of Internet advertisements and related systems and computer program products are also provided.

A system and method for detecting click fraud where the movement of a cursor on a web page is tracked prior to an advertisement on the web page being clicked by a controller of the cursor. The tracking is performed by client code on a client device displaying the web page. A path taken by the movement of the cursor is mapped to at least one vector associated with the path by the client code. The at least one vector is useable to detect a click fraud.

The invention relates to a method for detecting the click fraud in a virtual world, which comprises the following steps: acquiring a click event from a client; acquiring the three-dimensional geometric information of at least one element relevant to the click event; and verifying whether the click event is effective or not according to the three-dimensional geometric information. The invention also provides a device for detecting the click fraud in the virtual world corresponding to the method.

The invention discloses a malicious webpage advertising detection method based on advertising network topology. The method comprises the basic steps of extraction of all URL in websites to be detected, extraction of URL relevant to advertisings, reconstruction of advertising re-orientation links, annotation of node characteristics, extraction of 3-node short-path sections and detection rule generation based on machine learning. The malicious webpage advertising detection method does not need any modification to websites of publishers, is easy to implement, higher in applicability and does not depend on the contents of advertising webpages, so that the method has robustness to code obfuscation and shell adding. Compared with a single malicious webpage advertising detection technology, various types of malicious webpage advertising attacks such as phishing and click fraud can be detected by adopting the method, and the method has universality. For detection on malicious webpage advertisings utilizing advertising alliance, the method still has effectiveness.