Briefs

Via Micropersuasion, Click Fraud is a BusinessWeek cover story on, well, click fraud. What's new from stories we've already read and read and read about click fraud before? Lots, ranging from a new advertiser pressure group, to an industry estimate that click fraud is 10 to 15 percent, along with a couple outing themselves as fraudsters. It's well worth a read. Here are some highlights:

BusinessWeek talks about its investigation coming up with "paid to read" rings, spread out in a way to presumably avoid detection. We get a named Minnesota couple talking about how they "dabbled" in click fraud to earn $5,000 over four months by setting up sites with Google and Yahoo ads, then paying other people to click. Ouch -- not a good thing for either company to have someone flat out admitting. Not sure the wisdom of that couple stepping forward, either!

Read more.