D - Q

Resources
Double click
The act of clicking the same ad within 2 seconds. Double clicks are attributed to a single user and qualify as invalid traffic.
Internet forum
An online discussion site, also known as a message board. Fraudsters frequently leverage internet forums in order to facilitate communication. Forums are a particularly popular channel for trading stolen information, for the following reasons: forums are often organized chronologically; they generally have decent search features; and postings, such as advertisements for malware, are relatively permanent, remaining visible to any and all visitors until they are removed. Internet forums have differing membership levels and range from being all-inclusive to offering memberships solely to fraudsters with established reputations. Once fraudsters successfully join a forum, they can buy and sell fraudulent goods and services, such as adware and bots, to interested parties.
Invalid traffic
Also known as Non-billable traffic. Invalid traffic is generated by sources with no valid interest in the ad or link. Invalid traffic consists of traffic from two sub-categories: Malicious and Non-Malicious.
Some invalid clicks are generated with malicious intent and are considered fraudulent. Examples include traffic generated by botnets or automated clicking tools. Other invalid traffic is not generated with malicious intent, and while it does not qualify as fraudulent, it should not be charged to advertisers. Examples of these non-malicious ad events include double clicks, traffic from known crawlers, and internal test clicks.
IRC (abbr. Internet Relay Chat)
An internet communications protocol that offers real-time internet chat among groups. Communication occurs via channels, or “chat rooms,” which are hosted on IRC servers. Most IRC servers are established for legitimate purposes, but fraudsters often use public servers covertly. IRC servers are a popular communications platform for fraudsters because they require minimal bandwidth and can be accessed using one of many freely available IRC clients. Click fraud perpetrators, in particular, use IRC servers and channels to buy and sell compromised machines to organize botnets in order to perpetrate sophisticated click fraud schemes.
Kit sophisticate
The most sophisticated profile of click fraud perpetrators. Kit sophisticates purchase kits online to commit fraud. These kits often serve as a one-stop shop for click fraud perpetrators and provide tools to create hundreds of websites, mass register accounts, and generate thousands of ad clicks. Click fraud originating from kit sophisticates can also be extremely difficult to identify for ad networks and search engines.
Lane’s Gifts v. Google
Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles, LLC and Max Caulfield Investigations filed a class action lawsuit against Google, Yahoo!, and Time Warner in Arkansas in February 2005. The suit alleged that Google charged advertisers for fraudulent clicks through its AdWords network. This lawsuit was settled out of court on July 27, 2006 for $90 million in attorney’s fees and advertising credits.
Malicious traffic
See definition for Click fraud.
Malware
Derived from the words “malicious” and “software,” malware is a form of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or code that is generally transmitted online. Malware is often used to enter a computer system without conforming to standard authentication procedures. Examples of malware include adware, rootkits, Trojan horses, worms, and viruses.
Money launderer
A more sophisticated version of the pyramid schemer. Money launderers utilize “money mules,” individuals who are used to funnel money from ad networks to fraudsters. The fraudsters behind these schemes recruit people to use their personal information to register various websites with ad networks. Once the websites are registered to display ads, click fraudsters create bogus or copied content on these sites and generate false clicks on their ads, often by means of botnets. The ad network unknowingly makes payments to the various registrants, who manage the deposit. The registrants then transfer the money to the fraudsters for a fee, ranging from 20% to 50% of the payment. These profiles often go undetected by ad networks due to the sophisticated nature of their techniques.
Non-billable traffic
See definition for Invalid traffic.
Non-malicious traffic
Non-billable traffic generated with innocuous intentions. Non-billable traffic can be generated by entities like crawlers, spiders and robots.
Pyramid schemer
An unsophisticated click fraudster profile that applies to participants of pyramid schemes: non-sustainable business models that pay for recruiting new participants into the scheme and fail to deliver a legitimate product or service. Similar to members of a click farm, pyramid schemers are paid to click on ads and visit websites. However, in addition to receiving compensation for their traffic, click fraud pyramid schemers are also compensated for recruiting users. As a result, these users are less likely to be associated with the publisher site, making them harder to spot as suspicious.

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