Briefs

ClickZ News, By Kevin Newcomb | December 8, 2006

A journalist's investigation into click fraud has unearthed a proliferation of automated click fraud by "botnets," and the alleged involvement of organized crime and terrorist groups.

Jim Hedger, a search marketing journalist and founder of Markland Media, made his findings known on his Internet radio show The Alternatives, broadcast on Webmaster Radio from the floor of Search Engine Strategies in Chicago on Wednesday afternoon.

He said that he began an investigation into click fraud following the recent $90 million settlement by Google, and he soon found evidence of widespread botnets, or networks of computers unknowingly running "clickbot" applications that produce fraudulent clicks on pay-per-click ads, like those on Google's AdWords and other networks.

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