The Hidden World of Click Fraud - The Webmasters
(Page 2 of 4 )
Lagos is the technology and financial center of Nigeria. On a darker side, it was where the Nigerian scam letter began. It fortunately it missed being home to the biggest click fraudster in Nigeria; that dubious distinction rests with a resident of another province. There is literally a glut of highly qualified professionals; thousands of them are unemployed. They then turn to Internet fraud, or go into business as software developers and website designers.
It is the latter category (specifically web designers) who perpetrate click fraud on Adsense. This is not a blanket accusation, but the percentage of webmasters that are involved in it is close to eight percent. Fortunately, they only do it on their own sites, not their clients' sites.
The first webmaster I interviewed (let's call him John) is a web designer who has being in the industry for close to four years. He has built hundreds of web sites for clients, and just one for himself. He runs Adsense campaigns on his site, after he ran across an article on the net that motivated him to do so. He has little or no knowledge of search engine optimization, however, and zero incentive to learn. He also has a six year old daughter and no other source of income apart from web design and hosting.
According to him, "Adsense is for clicking, they say I should click and get paid, so I do so." I asked him whether he considered it stealing to click fraudulently, and he sneered at me. He told me he does not participate in Internet fraud, and only does enough clicking to cover the monthly fees for his Internet connection and give his daughter an allowance when she goes to school. But the real beauty of the scam is the amount of organization he put into it.
The Scams (Made in Nigeria)
All over the world there are thousands of individuals who are computer savvy, who cannot afford to own their own computer. Combine this in Lagos with an undisclosed unemployment rate. He paid each individual on a weekly basis the equivalent of ten dollars (he claims he can only afford between 8-10 people a week because of overhead).
Computer centers charge between one to two dollars an hour to rent a computer connected to the Internet. The individuals he pays buy bulk time packages at discounted rates and browse happily, while paying him back by going to his site and clicking on his ads. He also clicks on his own ads whenever he has the chance, and encourages friends and family to do so when they visit his site.
The graphics designer claimed that the only thing stopping him from starting his own ring was a large project on which he was currently working. I remembered that a few months back he had asked for my cost estimate for six web sites and bulk hosting for all six. He had emphasized that I would set up Adsense accounts for all six.
Next: Before You Start Screaming >>
More Search Engine News Articles
More By Akinola Akintomide
/ 7 
