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March 26, 2004
Programmer Arrested in Alleged AdSense Extortion Plot
A 32-year-old California man has been charged with extortion for allegedly demanding Google pay him for software designed to defraud its AdSense program.
Special agents from the United States Secret Service arrested Michael Anthony Bradley of Oak Park, Calif. last week after Bradley allegedly met with Google engineers and demanded they pay him $100,000. Bradley allegedly threatened to release the software to spammers if he didn't receive payment, according to the criminal complaint. Bradley is charged with interfering with commerce by threats or violence and with mail fraud.
The software, which Bradley dubbed Google Clique, was designed to produce fraudulent clicks and impressions on the Web sites of participants in Google's AdSense program. AdSense allows publishers to receive a cut of what advertisers pay Google when consumers click on advertisements displayed on their sites. Fraudulent clicks would therefore allow AdSense publishers to rake in more dough.
Google officials said they couldn't comment on criminal proceedings but a spokesperson said, "Google does take fraud issues very seriously."
A site Bradley apparently set up to promote Google Clique, now taken down, said "we have been able to generate in excess of $30,000 per month using Google Clique across 10 Adsense account [sic]." The site also boasted that Clique employs a tunneling technology used by spammers to hide their IP addresses.
According to the complaint, Bradley contacted Google by e-mail on March 2, offering to sell the company auto-click software he had originally developed for a client who now refused to pay.
Google's Marty Lev, manager of safety and security, contacted the U.S. Secret Service after receiving the e-mail. The company set up a meeting with Bradley for March 10, but had audio and video equipment taping the conversation. A Secret Service agent monitored from the next room.
During that meeting, Bradley said that if Google didn't pay him $100,000, he would sell it to the "top 100 spammers," and Google would be "out $5 million in six months," according to the complaint.
Someone posting on Google Groups' alt.internet.search-engines group using Bradley's e-mail address offered to sell the auto-click software, claiming he'd met with Google and "they are scared and don't want this software to get out."
Upon being chastised by others, the poster explained that he was frustrated with Google because the company had cancelled a check made out to his friend, an AdSense publisher, due to suspicion of fraud.
"I really just want them to listen and learn how to track real fraudulent clicks (trust me they dont [sic]) Google is still on such an amatuer [sic] level when it comes to click tracking," wrote 'CountScubula'. "Thus my countless meetings with them, I am not going to educate the engineers for free on this, especial when my friend got screwed. Perhaps if they were to show proof of invalid clicks, that wouls [sic] be fine, but to just slam a door on the kid, thats [sic] not right.
"Its funny, because Google is a big company, every one assumes they know what they are doing. And my meetings with the engineers left me wondering who these people knew for thier [sic] jobs, becouse [sic] it wasn't knowledge or experience."
Bradley also had plans, according to the complaint, to release a program called "Reaper" which users could employ to generate automatic clicks on their competitors' Web sites. But with Reaper, all of the automatic clicks would be from one IP address, so it would presumably raise Google's suspicions and prompt the company to kick the site out of its AdSense program.
Bradley has been released on a $50,000 appearance bond and on the condition he refrain from using any computer or the Internet and avoid all contact with Google. His next court appearance is set for April 8.
By Pamela Parker
March 22, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3329381
Posted by Hans A. Koch at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2004
Programmer Arrested in Alleged AdSense Extortion Plot
A 32-year-old California man has been charged with extortion for allegedly demanding Google pay him for software designed to defraud its AdSense program.
Special agents from the United States Secret Service arrested Michael Anthony Bradley of Oak Park, Calif. last week after Bradley allegedly met with Google engineers and demanded they pay him $100,000. Bradley allegedly threatened to release the software to spammers if he didn't receive payment, according to the criminal complaint. Bradley is charged with interfering with commerce by threats or violence and with mail fraud.
The software, which Bradley dubbed Google Clique, was designed to produce fraudulent clicks and impressions on the Web sites of participants in Google's AdSense program. AdSense allows publishers to receive a cut of what advertisers pay Google when consumers click on advertisements displayed on their sites. Fraudulent clicks would therefore allow AdSense publishers to rake in more dough.
Google officials said they couldn't comment on criminal proceedings but a spokesperson said, "Google does take fraud issues very seriously."
A site Bradley apparently set up to promote Google Clique, now taken down, said "we have been able to generate in excess of $30,000 per month using Google Clique across 10 Adsense account [sic]." The site also boasted that Clique employs a tunneling technology used by spammers to hide their IP addresses.
According to the complaint, Bradley contacted Google by e-mail on March 2, offering to sell the company auto-click software he had originally developed for a client who now refused to pay.
Google's Marty Lev, manager of safety and security, contacted the U.S. Secret Service after receiving the e-mail. The company set up a meeting with Bradley for March 10, but had audio and video equipment taping the conversation. A Secret Service agent monitored from the next room.
During that meeting, Bradley said that if Google didn't pay him $100,000, he would sell it to the "top 100 spammers," and Google would be "out $5 million in six months," according to the complaint.
Someone posting on Google Groups' alt.internet.search-engines group using Bradley's e-mail address offered to sell the auto-click software, claiming he'd met with Google and "they are scared and don't want this software to get out."
Upon being chastised by others, the poster explained that he was frustrated with Google because the company had cancelled a check made out to his friend, an AdSense publisher, due to suspicion of fraud.
"I really just want them to listen and learn how to track real fraudulent clicks (trust me they dont [sic]) Google is still on such an amatuer [sic] level when it comes to click tracking," wrote 'CountScubula'. "Thus my countless meetings with them, I am not going to educate the engineers for free on this, especial when my friend got screwed. Perhaps if they were to show proof of invalid clicks, that wouls [sic] be fine, but to just slam a door on the kid, thats [sic] not right.
"Its funny, because Google is a big company, every one assumes they know what they are doing. And my meetings with the engineers left me wondering who these people knew for thier [sic] jobs, becouse [sic] it wasn't knowledge or experience."
Bradley also had plans, according to the complaint, to release a program called "Reaper" which users could employ to generate automatic clicks on their competitors' Web sites. But with Reaper, all of the automatic clicks would be from one IP address, so it would presumably raise Google's suspicions and prompt the company to kick the site out of its AdSense program.
Bradley has been released on a $50,000 appearance bond and on the condition he refrain from using any computer or the Internet and avoid all contact with Google. His next court appearance is set for April 8.
By Pamela Parker | March 22, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3329381
Posted by Hans A. Koch at 09:31 PM | Comments (0)
Arrest Shows Google's Vulnerability
Michael Bradley, recently arrested for his boneheaded attempt to extort money from Google, is a wake up call to the PPC industry.
He claimed to have developed software that would roam the web and click on AdSense ads, potentially costing both Google and their advertisers millions.
Once he'd developed his software he offered it to Google for $100k. When he didn't hear back from them he threatened to release the program to 100 spammers and the public at large. He also offered his services as a click fraud consultant.
The FBI has him on tape, in Google's offices, making his "pitch."
Now consider a smarter click fraud engineer. His software allows fraudsters to type in competitor's names and then crawl the web clicking on AdSense ads where his competitor's ads appear. Perhaps it even clicks on AdWords ads for your competitor's search terms.
Instead of trying to extort money from Google, this click fraud engineer sells his software to unscrupulous marketers, allowing them to steal their competitors' ad budget.
Well, click fraud software already exists. I found some discussed in this WebMasterWorld thread. While I've never seen any advertised, I'm sure if you know the right people, or search terms, it would not be hard to find (I couldn't find any when I searched on "click fraud software").
How widespread is the use of PPC fraud software? I don't have any numbers. How widespread is manual click fraud? Again, not much talk from Gooogle and Overture regarding the percentage of fradulent clicks.
Because of this lack of information advertisers have to rely on anecdotal evidence from forums to determine the rate of click fraud, and the problem with this type of information is that it's only the most upset and indignant advertisers writing in, and is often biased against PPC.
I read an article recently from an organic SEO firm that argued against using PPC ads. The author pointed to click fraud as the main reason marketers should (pay him to) organically optimize their sites.
So if you're using PPC what can you do?
First off, watch for paid clicks that don't have corresponding page views. Be sure you're tracking everything separately, down to the keyword.
If you have to make a fraud claim, be sure that you've documented everything - including emails to whoever's hitting you with drive by clicks and emails to and from your PPC provider.
Finally, consider click fraud prevention software. Here are a couple I found but have not tested (and really, what more could they do than analytics software? The best defense is a good offense.)
http://www.keywordmax.com/click_auditor.html
http://www.whosclickingwho.com/
So here's what I'd like to see from PPC providers - more information on click fraud prevention, both what they're doing and what advertisers can do. Documented click fraud percentages would be nice too, and bring some much-needed transparency to the PPC industry.
I used this article on CPC Click Fraud for research.
Garrett French
Staff Writer
2004-03-22
Posted by Hans A. Koch at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)
Man arrested for allegedly extorting Google
A California man has been charged with extortion, after allegedly making demands for $100,000 from search giant Google.
According to court papers, he claimed that if Google did not pay, he would release a piece of software to spammers that would generate fake advertising hits, costing the search giant millions.
The man, Michael Bradley, was so sure that the folks at Google would pay up, he even turned up at their offices for a meeting to sell his software. By then, federal law enforcement agents were already on the case and videotaped the alleged extortion attempt.
The software Bradley designed would have flooded the Google advertisements with fake clicks, potentially costing the company millions of dollars. Google pays Web publishers a fee for each click on the pop-ups the site generates. He threatened to give the software to the top 100 spammers in the meeting with Google's officials, court papers released on Friday show.
According to the papers, he also offered his services as a consultant engineer to help the search engine stop other advertising fraud.
After he didn't hear back from the search engine staff about a payment, he allegedly sent an e-mail saying he would release the software to the public--and the spammers--the following week. He was then met by someone whom he likely expected to be a Google executive clutching a big bag of money but who turned out to be a federal agent with an arrest warrant.
Bradley was released on $50,000 bail, on the condition that he has no contact with his computer or Google.
Jo Best of Silicon.com reported from London.
Published: March 22, 2004, 8:50 AM PST
By Jo Best
Special to CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/Man+arrested+for+allegedly+extorting+Google/2100-1032_3-5176670.html?tag=nl
Posted by Hans A. Koch at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)
