or having programs called hitbots or clickbots do it for them, with knowledge that each click costs advertiser money; some of troublemakers are disgruntled employees; some are companies trying to force competitors' ad spending up; some are even Web page operators who let search engines deliver ads to their sites and then collect cut when people click on those ads; ad buyers worry that 'click fraud' could become rampant, if unchecked--development that could undermine confidence in fastest-growing segment of Internet advertising; executives at Speedy Registration, British company that sells personalized license plates, says its pay-per-click ads were fraudulently hit last year; chart (M)

By NAT IVES (NYT) 919 words
Late Edition - Final , Section C , Page 1 , Column 5
BUSINESS/FINANCIAL DESK | March 3, 2005, Thursday

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